a better Chkdsk?

[VanguardLH]

When the convert.exe program ended, did it display any message, like
an error? If the message or status gets erased from the screen due to
a reboot, maybe you can boot into the Recovery Console mode (using the
install CD or by install the Recovery Console when in Windows) to get
a DOS-like shell that remains open after you finish running the
convert.exe program. I don't remember if convert.exe runs under
Recovery Console mode.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216417/en-us

If you have applied a service pack that is later than what is on the
install CD, you need to create a slipstreamed install CD that includes
the same service pack level as your current install of Windows.

 

[John John]

Convert does not run from the Recovery Console. On a secondary drive
convert will run from within Windows providing that the utility can get
a lock on the volume, no need to even reboot. The utility cannot gain
an exclusive lock on the system or boot volumes so it must reboot to do
the conversion.

John

 

[John John]

If I correctly understand what you wrote I think that your FAT32 file
system is whacked.

The theoretical maximum FAT32 drive size is in function of the maximum
possible number of clusters usable by the FAT32 file system and the size
of the clusters. 64KB clusters are not supported by the FAT32 file
system, the largest cluster size is 32KB and the maximum possible number
of clusters is 268,435,445, this yields a theoretical volume of
approximately 8 terabytes. You stated that you first formated your
large 300GB drive to 512 byte clusters, now lets do a bit of math and
break all of that down to understandable numbers:

268,435,445 clusters @ 32KB = 8 terabytes
268,435,445 clusters @ 16KB = 4 terabytes
268,435,445 clusters @ 8KB = 2 terabytes
268,435,445 clusters @ 4KB = 1 terabyte
268,435,445 clusters @ 2KB = 512 gigabytes
268,435,445 clusters @ 1KB = 256 gigabytes
268,435,445 clusters @ 512 bytes = 128 gigabytes

So, now we can easily see that your FAT32 drive is whacked, to have
formated it to 512 byte clusters the number of required clusters is more
than twice the maximum possible number of clusters. The drive was whack
when you first formated it, changing the cluster size after the fact
probably did not fix the problem. While this drive appears to be
functioning properly the file system is clearly not in a healthy state,
sooner or later this thing will blow up in your face and you will
probably lose all your files when that happens!

In view of the astronomical number of clusters on the drive and in view
of the insanely large FAT that ensues from such a large number of
clusters you cannot continue trying to fix this drive and rely on it or
have any confidence that the file system will continue to run reliably,
that is probably why you cannot convert the drive and my only advice to
you at this point is that you rebuild the drive from scratch and format
it to NTFS with the standard 4K clusters right from the beginning, use
your Microsoft utilities to do this.

John

References:
Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463/EN-US/

 

[Frank]

I got out three "old" FAT32 HD's and stuffed them in a USB box.
One was at 4k and the other two were at 32k.
I then went to my desktop, cranked up Acronis Disk Director in the auto
mode and it "suggested" that my HD should be at 32K, so I went with it
and changed the cluster size to 32k.
On completion, my 300 gig partition had 40gig unallocated, so I expanded
it to the max of 298.
I ran chkdsk /r and found no problems.

So, right now, I do not know where I am.
On loosing data.... I am a fanatic User of Acronis Trueimage and always
have one or more HD image files to Restore from.

I, as I said, am confused and sure do appreciate all your input.
Thanks,
Frank

 

[Frank]

BTW, while I had those three HD's up I converted them to NTFS with no
problems.
Strange gremlins running around in my computers I guess.

 

[John John]

If it doesn't want to convert then I think there is something wrong with
it, something went wrong somewhere. In view of the different work that
was done with the drive, (formated to a non standard size cluster size,
changed the cluster size, extended the partition...) I would simply
rebuild the drive. I really would not trust the drive in its present state.

John