Reformatting External Hard Drive drom Fat to NFTS

[Guest]

Been in Dos and can't seem to do it right. Need to convert my External
Seagate H/D from Fat to NFTS. Can Anybody tell me how?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

1. Right-click on MY COMPUTER and select MANAGE.
2. Click on DISK MANAGEMENT.
3. Right-click on your external drive and select FORMAT.
4. Select NTFS from the File System pull-down menu.
5. Click on OK.

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

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

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:

| Been in Dos and can't seem to do it right. Need to convert my External
| Seagate H/D from Fat to NFTS. Can Anybody tell me how?

 

[Walter Clayton]

Won't work if the driver is large than 32G. ;-)

 

[Walter Clayton]

You can't convert in place.

This is going to rather tricky. By DOS I assume you mean you're booting from
an actual DOS diskette or using a 9x system? If the former, unless your BIOS
provides native support for the drive *or* you have drivers that can run in
DOS, you're out of luck. However, if you can get to the drive with real DOS
or a 9x system, use fdisk to remove the partition, recreate the partition
and format it.

Why do you think you need to reformat it to FAT?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

The OP desires to reformat from FAT to NTFS.
Not the other way around.

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

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:


| You can't convert in place.
|
| This is going to rather tricky. By DOS I assume you mean you're booting from
| an actual DOS diskette or using a 9x system? If the former, unless your BIOS
| provides native support for the drive *or* you have drivers that can run in
| DOS, you're out of luck. However, if you can get to the drive with real DOS
| or a 9x system, use fdisk to remove the partition, recreate the partition
| and format it.
|
| Why do you think you need to reformat it to FAT?
|
| --
| Walter Clayton
| Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
| http://www.dts-l.org

 

[Anna]

Won't work if the driver is large than 32G. ;-)

First of all, I'm not sure why there's a "need" to convert the file system
on a USB/Firewire external hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS. As a matter of
fact, there's an *advantage* of employing the FAT32 file system on an EHD in
the event a Win9x/Me OS will need to access that external drive. And to the
best of my knowledge there's no particular performance/security advantage to
the NTFS system insofar as it relates to a EHD.

But setting that aside...

I'm assuming that the OP's EHD contains programs & data that he wants to
retain and convert to NTFS. So, if that is so, Carey's recommendation to
format the EHD in NTFS will work, of course, but it's goodbye to all the
contents on that disk. (On the other hand, if the OP is uninterested in
saving that data, then Carey's recommendation is the way to go.)

To the best of my knowledge you cannot use the convert command in an XP
environment to convert an EHD. However, it sounds like the OP has his
Seagate HD in a USB external enclosure. If so, presumably he can remove it
and temporarily install it in his desktop computer and at the command prompt
enter "convert e: /fs:ntfs" (no quotes and assuming e: is the HD to be
converted) to perform the conversion from FAT32 to NTFS. Then return the HD
to his USB enclosure.

(Aside to Walter Clayton: Your reference to the 32 GB limitation refers to
the inability of XP to create FAT32 partitions > 32 GB.)
Anna

 

[Walter Clayton]

ARRGGGGHHH!!!!!

Sorry.

Reading for speed can cause comprehension problems.