Change Folders to Files

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jim Cladingboel
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J

Jim Cladingboel

While attempting to change a Fat32 partition to NTFS I was informed of
errors which required CHKDSK to fix.
Using Cmd Chkdsk /f, DOS responded that Chkdsk could not function unless all
folders were changed to files.
I backed out at that point as I could not understand what this implied.
That partition contains a wide variety of folders, with subfolders, mostly
containing images.
What, if anything, should I do? Thanks for all help.

Jim.
 
Jim

Firstly have you backed up any important data files?

How were you trying to convert a FAT32 partition to NTFS?

What exactly is in the partition? Is the windows operating system there?

How large is partition? Is there another partition containing sufficient
free space to which you might move the contents or some of the contents?

Any article containing advice on converting:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Jim Cladingboel said:
While attempting to change a Fat32 partition to NTFS I was informed of
errors which required CHKDSK to fix.
Using Cmd Chkdsk /f, DOS responded that Chkdsk could not function unless
all folders were changed to files.
I backed out at that point as I could not understand what this implied.
That partition contains a wide variety of folders, with subfolders, mostly
containing images.
What, if anything, should I do? Thanks for all help.

Jim.
Click to expand...

This message means that there is file system damage where those errors
appear. It can mean that if there is usable or valuable data in those
locations, you may lose it.

Try backing up the drive first, being sure that you DO HAVE working copies
of your data, then allow chkdsk to run and fix. If you can't back it up
yourself or if the backups fail, consider taking that drive to another
working XP system, and use data recovery software on it. Never recover
data TO the drive being recovered.

Google "data recovery software" and you'll find lots of options; look for
what matches your situation. Many have demo modes, that will let you see
what the prospects are, and save the results; you pay the fee, unlock the
software and rerun it to recover the data.

You might consider doing a clean install to a new drive and regarding this
drive as potentially damaged, and just a subject for recovery. If your
system came with an XP Install CD and driver disks, this is pretty easy to
do. Yes, you will have to set the system up again.

HTH
-pk
 
Patrick Keenan said:
This message means that there is file system damage where those errors
appear. It can mean that if there is usable or valuable data in those
locations, you may lose it.

Try backing up the drive first, being sure that you DO HAVE working
copies of your data, then allow chkdsk to run and fix. If you can't
back it up yourself or if the backups fail, consider taking that drive to
another working XP system, and use data recovery software on it. Never
recover data TO the drive being recovered.

Google "data recovery software" and you'll find lots of options; look for
what matches your situation. Many have demo modes, that will let you see
what the prospects are, and save the results; you pay the fee, unlock the
software and rerun it to recover the data.

You might consider doing a clean install to a new drive and regarding this
drive as potentially damaged, and just a subject for recovery. If your
system came with an XP Install CD and driver disks, this is pretty easy to
do. Yes, you will have to set the system up again.

HTH
-pk
Click to expand...

Thanks Patrick. I think I have covered all your points in my response to
Gerry, but I'm still concerned at how my "Folders" and all the other data
will look after this "conversion"?
And, of course, if I restore from the EHDD, I might recreate the same
problem.....

Jim.
 
Gerry,
I have two separate HDDs plus a large external HDD.
O/S is on Drive 0. This partition is on Drive 1. It is 36.4 GB total with
26.2 free.
It is backed up to the EHDD every week using Karen's Replicator.
It contains no programs. I basically use it as workspace to assemble data to
create DVD images etc, but it also holds my weekly backup image of Drive C
and, because this sometimes exceeds 2 GB, creating a split file, I decided
on the change to NTFS.
My reason for not proceeding with Chkdsk /f is that I couldn't imagine what
the partition contents would look like after the proposed conversion.
I've never come across a situation like this before. Changing folders to
files sounds like chaos.
Conversion will be done with Paragon Hard Disk Manager V.8.00
Thanks for the URL. I had overlooked the need to align first.

Many thanks, Jim.
 
Jim

If everything is backed up elsewhere why bother converting? Reformat as
NTFS?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Hi Gerry,

I took the plunge and converted to NTFS. Procedure was smooth as silk, no
problems, and to my surprise, the partition looks just the same as it did
before.
Many thanks,

Jim.
 
Jim

Glad problem solved!


--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
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