Convert FAT 32 to NTFS

[Don]

A freiend of mine bought a new computer from Staples and it came with
Windows XP Home Edition on it. When I went to help him get it set up, I
found that they had installed the XP on a FAT 32 partition and I would like
to know if it can be converted to NTFS (which I consider more efficient)
without losing all his data? Thanks -
Don

 

[Don]

I just found the answer via one of the knowlege base articles on Microsoft.
Thanks anyway! Sorry for not researching it better prior to my post.
Don

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Yes it can but there is no guarantee that dat will not be lost. However, the
times i have done it i haven't lost any data. But the warning is there all
the same.
Visit my website http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org Click the Win XP Faq
button and take a look at question 23 'how do i convert my fat32 file system
to ntfs'

 

[bxb7668]

Log on to an account with Administer privilege. Click on Start | Run
and type in cmd. Once the command windows opens, type on the command
line:
convert driveletter: fs/ntfs
Replace "driveletter:" with the appropriate drive letter, i.e. C:

Brian

 

[Walter Clayton]

Word of caution. Unless the fat partition was created with aligned clusters,
the results of the conversion can be rather ugly. You may wind up with 512B
clusters will make performance sort of sucky.

 

[Andrew Murray]

yes.
but on the side of caution, back up data files first.