FAT System

[Prafulla]

On my computer I have drive C: as FAT drive and Drive G:
as NTFS drive. I had installed Windows 98 on my computer
then installed Windows 2000. Drive C: has no files. Both
drives are partitions of same hard drive. How can I remove
FAT partition. I want the entire drive to be NTFS.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Prafulla.

When you say, "Drive C: has no files", I assume you mean no visible files.
The "system files" normally have the Hidden, System and Read-only attributes
set and do not show up in a directory listing, but they must still be there
in order for Windows to boot.

Drive C: (in almost all cases) contains the "system files" (ntldr,
ntdetect.com and boot.ini - plus bootsect.dos and the MS-DOS system files
io.sys and msdos.sys when dual-booting Win9x/ME), which Windows must find in
the "system partition" in order to boot. If you remove drive C:, you will
delete these files. And since Drive C: will no longer exist, your other
drive letters and partition numbers will change (Drive G: might no longer be
Drive G, and this also will keep Win2K from booting.

The easiest and quickest step might be to use Convert.exe to convert Drive
C: to NTFS. Since Convert.exe can't work on the drive it just booted from
(Drive C, you will need to let it make the conversion on the next boot
after you run the program. Your drive letters will not change, and your
system files will not be deleted.

Win9x/ME can't read, write or boot from an NTFS partition, so you will no
longer be able to boot Win98 after you convert Drive C: to NTFS. But if
you've already deleted Win98, that should be no problem.

RC

 

[Ben Reuven]

-----Original Message-----
On my computer I have drive C: as FAT drive and Drive G:
as NTFS drive. I had installed Windows 98 on my computer
then installed Windows 2000. Drive C: has no files. Both
drives are partitions of same hard drive. How can I remove
FAT partition. I want the entire drive to be NTFS.
.
Try converting c:\> to NTFS by using convert c: /fs:ntfs

command.

 

[Prafulla]

Hi, R.C. White,

It was nice to get a reply from a fellow CPA. I am a CPA
in Northeast. My drive C: shows 560mb being used out of
8gig. Windows 2000 is installed on drive/partition G. Any
suggestions.

Thanks,

Prafulla

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Prafulla.

Unless there's something you haven't mentioned and I haven't thought of, my
only suggestion is as before: Convert Drive C: to NTFS. As Ben Reuven
said, the command is: convert.exe c: /fs:ntfs

Since it's the boot device which is being converted, it can't be done "on
the fly". Convert.exe will set a flag to make the conversion on the next
reboot.

The "system files" for Win2K total well under 1 MB; even if the Win9x/ME
system files are still there, the total would still be under 1 MB for both
sets. There may well be other hidden files on Drive C:, though, such as
hiberfil.sys (if you use hibernation), the page file (pagefile.sys), the
recycle bin, and maybe some others. Open a "DOS" window and type: dir c:\
/s /a This should give you a full directory of Drive C:, starting in \, the
Root; the /s switch will show all subdirectories and their files and the /a
switch will show all files, no matter which attributes may be set. Empty
the Recycle Bin and try the dir again. The hibernation file should be just
slightly larger than your installed RAM; pagefile.sys will be 1.5 times your
RAM unless you've changed it. These two files alone could account for all
or most of your 560 MB.

After 30 years of public accounting (the last half limited to tax planning
and estate planning), I've been retired for a decade or so. So long as I
keep paying the accountancy board $25 a year, I can still call myself a CPA.
But I can't actually practice public accounting without bringing myself
up-to-date with continuing education courses.

RC