Converting from FAT32 to NTFS

J

John Wolf

Have any of you ever tried this? If so what was the end result? I have my
Mac Boot Camp partition in the FAT32 format. Unfortunately I cannot move the
partition to a new and larger hard drive without it being in the NTFS format
As WinClone will not recognize FAT32. I fear incompatibility with some apps
after the conversion as is common on Windows operating systems. Thanks..

http://www.ntfs.com/quest3.htm

Convert FAT to NTFS

Q: Is it possible to convert a FAT32 Hard Drive to NTFS without losing all
data on the drive? I like to change from FAT32 to NTFS, my operating system
is Windows XP PRO, how can I do that? Without the lost of my programs?

A: Standard Windows utility that is called CONVERT serves this purpose

Just go to the Command Prompt and execute the command:

C:\> CONVERT C: /fs:ntfs
Where C: is a name of the drive you want to convert.

After machine re-boot conversion process will start and you'll have your
FAT32 converted to NTFS without of data loss.

--
If you were to die today where would you go? What's on the other side?
http://www.cerm.info/salvation.htm
http://www.cerm.info/sermons/audio/steet_preaching.WMA

Christians I challenge you to engage in evangelism all the time!
http://www.cerm.info/bible_studies/Topical/soul_winning.htm
http://www.cerm.info/sermons/audio/soul_winning.WMA
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

Have any of you ever tried this? If so what was the end result? I have my
Mac Boot Camp partition in the FAT32 format. Unfortunately I cannot move the
partition to a new and larger hard drive without it being in the NTFS format
As WinClone will not recognize FAT32. I fear incompatibility with some apps
after the conversion as is common on Windows operating systems. Thanks..

http://www.ntfs.com/quest3.htm

Convert FAT to NTFS

Q: Is it possible to convert a FAT32 Hard Drive to NTFS without losing all
data on the drive? I like to change from FAT32 to NTFS, my operating system
is Windows XP PRO, how can I do that? Without the lost of my programs?

A: Standard Windows utility that is called CONVERT serves this purpose

Just go to the Command Prompt and execute the command:

C:\> CONVERT C: /fs:ntfs
Where C: is a name of the drive you want to convert.

After machine re-boot conversion process will start and you'll have your
FAT32 converted to NTFS without of data loss.
Click to expand...


To convert to NTFS, you use the CONVERT command. But first read
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm because there's an important issue
regarding cluster size that isn't obvious.

Also note that conversion is a big step, affecting everything on your
drive. When you take such a big step, no matter how unlikely, it is
always possible that something could go wrong. For that reason, it's
prudent to make sure you have a backup of anything you can't afford to
lose before beginning.
 
J

John Wolf

Thanks I will back it up using Disk Utility.


To convert to NTFS, you use the CONVERT command. But first read
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm because there's an important issue
regarding cluster size that isn't obvious.

Also note that conversion is a big step, affecting everything on your
drive. When you take such a big step, no matter how unlikely, it is
always possible that something could go wrong. For that reason, it's
prudent to make sure you have a backup of anything you can't afford to
lose before beginning.
Click to expand...
 
J

John Wolf

Okay I plan to run the command soon. I probably should backup my PC drive
soon.
 
J

John Wolf

I cant boot from a floppy as this is a Mac with BootCamp. So what do I do?
Avoid the conversion?

Converting a partition from FAT32 to NTFS can be done by an inbuilt utility
in the Windows XP operating system ‹ but it is important to realise that it
is a one-way process. You cannot convert back, except possibly by use of
Partition Magic 7.01, and that is not always successful. Windows XP has no
tool for converting from NTFS to FAT32.

There are a couple of things to do in advance if the conversion is to be
efficient. If you do not take these preliminary steps, you are liable to end
up with only 512 byte clusters, which is not a good idea.

What happens is that FAT32 partitions formatted by most Windows versions
except Windows XP itself (and possibly Windows 2000) have an odd multiple of
2 kilobytes in the ³system² sectors before the data area, where the File
Allocation Tables themselves and clustering start. Therefore, clusters 4 KB
in size are not aligned on 4 KB boundaries, as NTFS will want. CONVERT.EXE,
finding it cannot use 4K clusters, gives up and makes the clusters only 512
bytes (one half KB) instead. (For a table of the varying default cluster
sizes used by FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS for partitions of varying sizes, click
here.)

It is, therefore, important to realign the partition before conversion, by
moving all the data area up to a 4K boundary. (This will absorb odd sectors
at the far end which otherwise would not get used). For this, I suggest
BootIT NG, from BootitNG.com. This is a shareware program, priced at US$30
but with a 30-day fully functional trial. You may well find it valuable also
for its Disk Imaging and Partition Management capabilities.

Download the BOOTITNG.ZIP file to its own folder, extract the contents of
the ZIP file, then run BOOTITNG.EXE, which will make a bootable floppy. Boot
this floppy. For purposes of Partition Management, there is no need to
install the program to hard disk, so click Cancel Install, thus entering
Maintenance. Click Partition Work. Highlight the partition you intend to
convert. Click Slide, which has an option check box to Align for NTFS only.
Click OK. As it has to move almost every sector on the entire partition,
this will take a very long time ‹ schedule it for a meal break, or start it
to run overnight. (If it finishes quickly, that probably means that the
partition was properly aligned already.)

Then restart the computer, boot Windows XP, being sure to logon as an
Administrator, and defragment the disk. This ensures that there is, as far
as possible, a contiguous area for the NTFS Master File Table. It is best if
there is a fairly substantial amount of free space while you do it.

Now use the Windows XP convert tool: Go to Start | All Programs |
Accessories | Command Prompt (or, from a Run box, type CMD) and, assuming
you intend to convert C:, give the command:

VOL C:


If you didn't see my earlier message, please note the following: first
read http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm because there's an important
issue regarding cluster size that isn't obvious.
Click to expand...

--
If you were to die today where would you go? What's on the other side?
http://www.cerm.info/salvation.htm
http://www.cerm.info/sermons/audio/steet_preaching.WMA

Christians I challenge you to engage in evangelism all the time!
http://www.cerm.info/bible_studies/Topical/soul_winning.htm
http://www.cerm.info/sermons/audio/soul_winning.WMA
 
Y

Yousuf Khan

I cannot find this app on this site. Boot IT NG

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/products.htm
Click to expand...

It looks like it's been renamed to BootIt Bare Metal.

Boot Manager, Partition Manager, and Drive Imaging - BootIt Bare Metal
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-bare-metal.htm

Anyways, I wouldn't worry too much about alignment issues with the data
after conversion. It's not likely to be a huge performance degradation
over the optimized one. So I'd still suggest the Microsoft Convert
utility. Sometimes people just overthink things.

Yousuf Khan
 
J

John Wolf

It looks like it's been renamed to BootIt Bare Metal.

Boot Manager, Partition Manager, and Drive Imaging - BootIt Bare Metal
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-bare-metal.htm

Anyways, I wouldn't worry too much about alignment issues with the data
after conversion. It's not likely to be a huge performance degradation
over the optimized one. So I'd still suggest the Microsoft Convert
utility. Sometimes people just overthink things.

Yousuf Khan
Click to expand...

Okay gonna do the conversion soon then. I hope there will be no problems.
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

Okay gonna do the conversion soon then. I hope there will be no problems.
Click to expand...


Your choice of course, but in my view converting without fixing the
alignment issue is looking for trouble. It's very likely that you will
end up with degraded performance.
 

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