"Convert" NTFS to FAT32 after Saving HDD Contents

[Brad]

Hi,

Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
"Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format the
HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
problems?

Thanks in advance, Brad

Before you type your password, credit card number, etc.,
be sure there is no active keystroke logger (spyware) in your PC.

 

[Big Al]

Hi,

Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
"Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format the
HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
problems?

Thanks in advance, Brad

Before you type your password, credit card number, etc.,
be sure there is no active keystroke logger (spyware) in your PC.

Why ever in the world would you want to?

 

[R. McCarty]

Only with 3rd-Party Disk Management tools, such as Acronis Disk
Director or others. Is there a particular reason why you want to use
FAT32 instead of NTFS ?

Doing a non-destructive format conversion has some risk involved
so you wouldn't want to attempt this without a verified image to use
if something fails.

 

[John John]

Sure, use cloning software. But why on Earth would you want to do this?

John

 

[Big Al]

Only with 3rd-Party Disk Management tools, such as Acronis Disk
Director or others. Is there a particular reason why you want to use
FAT32 instead of NTFS ?

Doing a non-destructive format conversion has some risk involved
so you wouldn't want to attempt this without a verified image to use
if something fails.

I have no opinion, and since an image is a byte by type restore, I'd be
afraid of using Acronis. It might pick up the NTFS structure.
Google returned some web pages suggesting Partition Magic would do the
trick.
But as most comments I've seen, NTFS is a better format then FAT32.

 

[R. McCarty]

Acronis Disk Management isn't an imaging program, but more like
Partition Magic. But an image does retain the underlying format of
the volume so taking an image wouldn't help convert the format. A
conversion from NTFS to FAT32 has some restrictions if there is
"Sparse Data"/Compressed data and of course you loose the Security
ACLs on the NTFS partition.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi,

Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
"Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format the
HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
problems?

Sure. The easiest way would be to clone the entire drive to a second
drive using a program like Acronis True Image, then clone it back
after reformatting the original drive.

However, it's probably simpler to just convert the drive from NTFS to
FAT32, using one the several third-party programs with this
capability.

Why do you want to do this? Except for those dual booting to an
operating system that isn't NTFS-aware, NTFS is the better choice.

 

[smlunatick]

Hi,

   Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
"Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format the
HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
problems?

                Thanks in advance,   Brad

  Before you type your password, credit card number, etc.,
 be sure there is no active keystroke logger (spyware) in your PC.

Why go back to FAT32 format? Microsoft has purposely limited XP to
only create 32GB partitions and limted file sizes to 4GB (per file)
when using FAT32. NTFS is way better for your files in XP. If you
need a FAT32 partition, look at partitioning tools like Partition
Magic. With thism you should be able to resize/more/re-sequence
partitions.

 

[Anna]

Sure. The easiest way would be to clone the entire drive to a second
drive using a program like Acronis True Image, then clone it back
after reformatting the original drive.

However, it's probably simpler to just convert the drive from NTFS to
FAT32, using one the several third-party programs with this
capability.

Why do you want to do this? Except for those dual booting to an
operating system that isn't NTFS-aware, NTFS is the better choice.

Ken & bpetria:
Actually that wouldn't work. Even if the user reformatted his/her HDD FAT32
after cloning the contents to another disk, the re:cloning process would
just carry over the file system on the cloned contents - in this case NTFS.
So the user would be right back where he/she started from.

As you & others have indicated if, for some reason, the user *must* have a
FAT32 file system, the conversion process should be undertaken using a
third-party program such as Partition Magic. (Nearly) needless to say, a
clone of the original contents of the HDD should most definitely be created
*prior* to the conversion process. (The relatively few times we've
undertaken this kind of conversion using PM we experienced no problems. But
unquestionably the potential for loss or corrupted data is surely present).
Anna

 

[Bill in Co.]

Ken & bpetria:
Actually that wouldn't work. Even if the user reformatted his/her HDD
FAT32
after cloning the contents to another disk, the re:cloning process would
just carry over the file system on the cloned contents - in this case
NTFS.
So the user would be right back where he/she started from.

Right. If it's just a partition copy, it partition copies the source
drive as it is.

As you & others have indicated if, for some reason, the user *must* have a
FAT32 file system, the conversion process should be undertaken using a
third-party program such as Partition Magic. (Nearly) needless to say, a
clone of the original contents of the HDD should most definitely be
created
*prior* to the conversion process. (The relatively few times we've
undertaken this kind of conversion using PM we experienced no problems.
But
unquestionably the potential for loss or corrupted data is surely
present).
Anna

Yup, PM would be the way to go. But I'm curious here. What reason did
you do this, Anna? Because the user wanted to be able to see and access
his drive from Win9x in a dual boot situation, or??

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken & bpetria:
Actually that wouldn't work. Even if the user reformatted his/her HDD FAT32
after cloning the contents to another disk, the re:cloning process would
just carry over the file system on the cloned contents - in this case NTFS.
So the user would be right back where he/she started from.

Right, I had forgotten that. Thanks for the correction.

 

[Anna]

Right. If it's just a partition copy, it partition copies the source
drive as it is.

Yup, PM would be the way to go. But I'm curious here. What reason
did you do this, Anna? Because the user wanted to be able to see and
access his drive from Win9x in a dual boot situation, or??

Bill:
We tried it some number of times just for testing purposes.

There were, however, a few times (probably no more than 3 or 4 in my
experience as I recall) when a user (in this case some small-to-medium sized
businesses) were in the process of converting their systems from Win98 to
WinXP not too long after XP was released. We ran into some problems
involving corruption or loss of data with certain of their custom-designed
programs that they were using. These programs had been designed during the
Win9x era and hadn't been updated for XP, the designers of these programs
having long departed the scene. As a last resort we converted the XP NTFS
file system back to FAT32. Lo & behold the problems they formerly
encountered disappeared. Why this should happen was (and is) a mystery. I
haven't kept in touch but no doubt these organizations have most likely
updated their systems & programs so I would guess they're no longer using
the FAT32 file system in an XP environment.
Anna

 

[Bill in Co.]

Bill:
We tried it some number of times just for testing purposes.

There were, however, a few times (probably no more than 3 or 4 in my
experience as I recall) when a user (in this case some small-to-medium
sized
businesses) were in the process of converting their systems from Win98 to
WinXP not too long after XP was released. We ran into some problems
involving corruption or loss of data with certain of their custom-designed
programs that they were using. These programs had been designed during the
Win9x era and hadn't been updated for XP, the designers of these programs
having long departed the scene.

Yup. Sounds familiar.

As a last resort we converted the XP NTFS
file system back to FAT32. Lo & behold the problems they formerly
encountered disappeared. Why this should happen was (and is) a mystery. I
haven't kept in touch but no doubt these organizations have most likely
updated their systems & programs so I would guess they're no longer using
the FAT32 file system in an XP environment.
Anna

It's interesting that those few programs would work, once you went back to
FAT32. It appears simply that their file reads and writes weren't able to
cope with (or even recognize) NTFS, and maybe that's all there was to it.
I wonder which programs they were. Perhaps some older disk utility
programs.

I've brought most of my older Win98 programs over to WinXP, and most all of
them made the trip ok, but I can't recall which few didn't at the moment.
(Probably some older disk utility programs).