Can XP Home be converted to NTFS?

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G

Guest

I have a laptop with XP Home formated in FAT format. Can I convert it to
NTFS format. or... Can it be reinstalled on an NTFS format?
 
yes XP Home can be formatted with NTFS, you can convert fat to NTFS without
loss of data but doing it from NTFS to Fat will lose all data, NTFS is the
best file system to use in XP! you can do this by right clicking MY Computer
/ Manage/ Disk Management...

Hope this helps
 
Yes, you cna convert the file system without reinstalling Windows.
Please read here: http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.php

Pay attention to the information regarding cluster size and using
BootItNG to align the partition to the 4k boundary. It's quite easy to
do, you really don't want to end up with 512 byte clusters!

John
 
Thank you Gerry. I now find that it says in Disk Management that it is NTFS.
I have it connected to my Windows Home SErver which still thinks it is FAT
32 so it can not use the automated backup to the WHS. I may have to do a
clean reinstall. or better yet, if I can afford it, install XP Pro which is
the better idea.
Again thanks.
Grady
 
If the disk is ntfs and WHS thinks its Fat then perhaps you should be
looking at WHS for a reason/cure
 
John said:
yes XP Home can be formatted with NTFS, you can convert fat to NTFS without
loss of data but doing it from NTFS to Fat will lose all data,
Click to expand...

Hold on a minute! XP does not come with any way to convert an NTFS
partition to FAT32, but that doesn't mean that it can't be done.
Things like Partition Magic and others of that ilk can do it with no
problem. You will *not* lose all data. You will lose anything stored
in Alternate Data Streams
(http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/Streams.html). That's mostly
descriptive information, the stuff that pops up when you right-click a
file, choose "Properties", then click the "Summary" tab. And you'll
lose the permissions you've set on files. That kind of thing is
supported in NTFS, not FAT32. But the files themselves will survive.
 
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