NTFS File System on Hard Drive

[Aaron Stieglitz]

I want to remove the NTFS file system on a hard drive and
go back to a FAT-32 file system. F Disk does not
recognize it. How can I achieve a FAT-32 file system?

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

You really shouldn't be using fdisk with WinXP, but what you need to do is
remove the non-dos partition with it, then create a new FAT32 primary.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Ken Blake]

In

I want to remove the NTFS file system on a hard drive and
go back to a FAT-32 file system. F Disk does not
recognize it. How can I achieve a FAT-32 file system?

Windows provides no way to do this. If you want to do this
without losing what's on the drive, you need a third-party
program, and the only such program I know of that claims to do
this is Partition Magic.

If you are willing to lose what's on the drive, use FDISK to
remove the non-DOS partition, then create a FAT32 partition.

Why do you want to do this? Unless you're planning on dual
booting with Windows 98 or Me, it's a mistake, in my view.

 

[Curt]

Rick,

Why do you say fdisk should not be used with XP?

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Has to do with drive structure and partition alignment, and that most older
versions of fdisk do not handle disks beyond 64GB. XP has a perfectly good
drive tool included, though if someone insists on going backwards they will
need to use fdisk to create a FAT32 partition beyond 32GB and format it.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Curt]

OK, it makes sense in the context of a large HD allowing the creation of
32+GB partitions. Speaking strictly for myself, I've used both fdisk and the
XP cd to format and partition. I've not yet found the need for an HD larger
than 40GB, so either tool works for me. I will say that I was ,initially, a
bit apprehensive about formatting in NTFS and stuck with FAT32 for a couple
of months before converting to NTFS. I had read or heard that XP ran a bit
faster with FAT32. But I really didn't see any noticeable slow down with
NTFS, so my 3 systems and 2 systems I built for family members are all NTFS.
Thanks for the info.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Actually, FAT32 is slightly faster on partitions of 30GB or less but NTFS is
faster on larger partitions. However, speed is not the primary
consideration. NTFS supports significant security and self healing
capabilities that FAT32 cannot do. My C: drive has 42GB of used space and
each partition should have at least 15% free space to allow for temp files
during operations like defragmentation, so one size does not fit all. A lot
of the reasons for partitioning a physical drive have gone away over the
years as file systems are able to handle very large partitions.