A Final FAT32>NTFS Question

[Anomaly]

Does converting to NTFS from FAT32 render all FAT 32 images obsolete, or
are any of the imaging programs (Ghost, Acronis, DI) able to restore an
image that was created on a FAT32 partition to an NTFS partition?

Thanks,
Anom

 

[Michael Squires]

Does converting to NTFS from FAT32 render all FAT 32 images obsolete, or

At least with the versions of Ghost I've used restoring an image created
from a FAT32 partition onto an NTFS partition will change the partition back
to FAT32; I'm certain that restoring a Ghost image created from an NTFS
partition will change a FAT32 partition to NTFS, have done this all the time.

There was some discussion here about Ghost having difficulty restoring/creating
NTFS images; I haven't had that problem, although older versions of Ghost will
have problems with MS Windows XP's version of NTFS.

Mike Squires

 

[Michael Cecil]

Does converting to NTFS from FAT32 render all FAT 32 images obsolete, or
are any of the imaging programs (Ghost, Acronis, DI) able to restore an
image that was created on a FAT32 partition to an NTFS partition?

No, that's usually a separate step since the file structures are
different. (Although perhaps Acronis can do that - not very familiar with
them.)

Often there is a bundled utility (with Ghost it has been called Ghost
Explorer) that will let you restore particular files or folders. That
happens at a high enough level that the filesystem doesn't matter.

 

[J. Clarke]

No, that's usually a separate step since the file structures are
different. (Although perhaps Acronis can do that - not very familiar with
them.)

Not clear on what you mean by "no". Generally speaking imaging utilities
restore the image, overwriting any existing file system with whatever was
used on the partition that was imaged.

 

[Michael Cecil]

Not clear on what you mean by "no". Generally speaking imaging utilities
restore the image, overwriting any existing file system with whatever was
used on the partition that was imaged.

Anomaly asked if you could restore a FAT32 image to a NTFS partition. The
answer to that is no. If you did that the result would be a FAT32
partition, not an NTFS partition. Converting from FAT32 to NTFS would be
a separate step since the imager cannot do it on the fly.

To just directly answer his question without explanation, then yes
converting from FAT32 to NTFS renders old images obsolete.

Sorry if that was confusing.