Converting a HD from NTFS to FAT32

[Chuck]

Have a lap top that came preinstalled with WinXP Home and
other apps. HD is formatted NTFS. Have a program that
will only run on FAT32. Is there a way of converting the
drive to FAT32 without lossing data and having to
reinstall everything on the HD? I guess creating a FAT32
partition would be OK also. Went to MS info data base and
they said to use Disk Management (compmgmt.msc from Run
window)and "ight click unallocated space on the basic disk
where you want to create the partition, and then click New
Partition". First there is nothing labeled "unallocated
space" in the window. There is "Free Space", but I cannot
right click it to bring up a menu. If I right click on
the drive, it brings up a window without the choice "New
Partition". Even if I could get this to work, will it
destroy existing info on the disk?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

One cannot natively convert a NTFS partition to FAT32.
You'll need a sophisticated third-party program, such as
Partition Magic 8.

Partition Magic 8 Details
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/pmdetails.cfm

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

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| Have a lap top that came preinstalled with WinXP Home and
| other apps. HD is formatted NTFS. Have a program that
| will only run on FAT32. Is there a way of converting the
| drive to FAT32 without lossing data and having to
| reinstall everything on the HD? I guess creating a FAT32
| partition would be OK also. Went to MS info data base and
| they said to use Disk Management (compmgmt.msc from Run
| window)and "ight click unallocated space on the basic disk
| where you want to create the partition, and then click New
| Partition". First there is nothing labeled "unallocated
| space" in the window. There is "Free Space", but I cannot
| right click it to bring up a menu. If I right click on
| the drive, it brings up a window without the choice "New
| Partition". Even if I could get this to work, will it
| destroy existing info on the disk?

 

[Howard Brazee]

Choices:

1. Buy Partition Magic
2. Buy another drive

Both of these are useful, especially if you can install your application on a
USB or Firewire external drive.

Step 2 can have the application on a hard drive, or possibly on a memory card
acting as a drive. If you do the latter, make sure you can back it up to your
hard drive and restore it for when you need to run it.