changing file system

[Sreedhar]

Hi,

I've re-installed Windows XP on my laptop with four drives. Earlier, the
file system is FAT32. During re-install, I've formatted the system drive (C
to NTFS. All other drives are still FAT32.

How can I change the rest of the drives to NTFS without losing my files/data
on those drives.

Thank you.

 

[John John (MVP)]

Make sure the partitions are aligned to 4K boundaries or else you may
end up with 512 bytes clusters. http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm

John

 

[Twayne]

Make sure the partitions are aligned to 4K boundaries or else you may

end up with 512 bytes clusters. http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm

John

And even though it's "safe" to your data, the wise use will still do a
backup before messing with anything that close to the OS. Stuff
happens.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I've re-installed Windows XP on my laptop with four drives. Earlier, the
file system is FAT32. During re-install, I've formatted the system drive (C
to NTFS. All other drives are still FAT32.

How can I change the rest of the drives to NTFS without losing my files/data
on those drives.

To convert to NTFS, you use the CONVERT command. But first read
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm because there's an issue regarding
cluster size that isn't obvious.

Also note that conversion is a big step, affecting everything on your
drive. When you take such a big step, no matter how unlikely, it is
always possible that something could go wrong. For that reason, it's
prudent to make sure you have a backup of anything you can't afford to
lose before beginning.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

To convert to NTFS, you use the CONVERT command. But first read
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm because there's an issue regarding
cluster size that isn't obvious.

Also note that conversion is a big step, affecting everything on your
drive. When you take such a big step, no matter how unlikely, it is
always possible that something could go wrong. For that reason, it's
prudent to make sure you have a backup of anything you can't afford to
lose before beginning.

By the way, given the need to make a backup before you do this, and
given that you don't need to convert the system drive, the easiest way
to do this might be to make a backup, then reformat the drive as NTFS,
and finally restore from the backup.

 

[Sreedhar]

Hi,

Thanks everybody for the info. That will help.