MVP EXPERT, ?conversion FAT32-NTFS external drive

[Guest]

hi, can an expert tell me how or if an external hard drive can be converted
from FAT32 to NTFS under Windows XP PRO+SP1,2? My XP box has a new Maxtor
3100 external drive attached which DiskDefrag shows to be FAT32 partitioned.
convert H: /FS:NTFS
in a cmd DOS window, gives the error message "invalid drive specification."
Is it possible to convert an external hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS? How?
Rich, Washington, DC, USA, (e-mail address removed)

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You'll have to reformat the drive. Right-click on My Computer, select Manage.
Click on Disk Management, then right-click on the external drive letter and select
format. Select NTFS from the File System pull-down menu.

Make sure to backup any existing files on this drive before proceeding.

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

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

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:

| hi, can an expert tell me how or if an external hard drive can be converted
| from FAT32 to NTFS under Windows XP PRO+SP1,2? My XP box has a new Maxtor
| 3100 external drive attached which DiskDefrag shows to be FAT32 partitioned.
| convert H: /FS:NTFS
| in a cmd DOS window, gives the error message "invalid drive specification."
| Is it possible to convert an external hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS? How?
| Rich, Washington, DC, USA, (e-mail address removed)
| --
| Thank you so much for helping!

 

[Guest]

thank you so much for MVP sharps! if i understand you correctly, this means
an external drive does not allow "convert" cmd with which existing files can
remain on the drive when FAT32->NTFS conversion occurs. rich, (e-mail address removed)

 

[Steve N.]

thank you so much for MVP sharps! if i understand you correctly, this means
an external drive does not allow "convert" cmd with which existing files can
remain on the drive when FAT32->NTFS conversion occurs. rich, (e-mail address removed)

That's not necessarily true. From what I gather you used an invalid
drive spec and XP has a nasty habit of being inconsistent when it comes
to assigning drive letters to external drives. Your H: drive was
invalid. You could also go into Drive management and assign a drive
letter to the device manually, however Carey's advice to format the
drive NTFS rather than convert is the better choice since there are
cluster size considerations when converting; my understanding is that
convert will use the existing FAT32 cluster size which may not be
optimal for NTFS. Formatting NTFS fresh on the drive assures the optimum
cluster sizes for NTFS.

Steve

 

[Guest]

thank you for raising an interesting question. am i misunderstanding you or
are you saying Windows XP's random but consistent assignment of drive letter
H: to a Maxtor external drive USB2.0 connected, is why FAT32 to NTFS
conversion could not go through? that is, if i used DiskManagment to
manually reassign the external drive a new letter not in current use, say
drive D: or E:, then it's possible the standard "convert D: /FS NTFS" would
go through? that's surprising! next time i will try that, the problem right
now is i have important files on the external drive and i don't want to risk
wiping them out. Again, thank you for asking an important question. rich,
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Steve N.]

thank you for raising an interesting question. am i misunderstanding you or
are you saying Windows XP's random but consistent assignment of drive letter
H: to a Maxtor external drive USB2.0 connected, is why FAT32 to NTFS
conversion could not go through?

Well, it's not really random, but rather a glitch that I've observerd in
Explorer with removable (and networked) drives and drive letter
assigments. I have my theories about why this may be, but that's not
important for you right now. The fact is that H: drive was not valid for
whatever reason(s) when you tried the covert on it.

that is, if i used DiskManagment to
manually reassign the external drive a new letter not in current use, say
drive D: or E:, then it's possible the standard "convert D: /FS NTFS" would
go through? that's surprising! next time i will try that, the problem right
now is i have important files on the external drive and i don't want to risk
wiping them out. Again, thank you for asking an important question. rich,
(e-mail address removed)

You've got two choices:

1. Backup the files you want saved from that drive and then go into
Drive Management, assign a new letter to the drive and then use the
convert command on that drive letter. Converting from FAT32 to NTFS
_should_ result in your files being intact but as a precaution one
should always backup files before messing with file systems.

2. Backup the files you want saved from that drive and re-fromat it NTFS
then restore the files to it.

Since you've got to (or SHOULD!) backup your files either way, I suggest
you reformat the file system as NTFS and then restore your files from
backup. That way the default and most optimum cluster size for NTFS
performance is ensured. Converting from FAT32 to NTFS may or may not
result in optimum performance.

Steve