To Convert an External USB Hard Drive

[thecreator]

Hi All,

Situation: Using an USB Hard Drive externally thru a Hub, formatted with
FAT32 File System. Drive is one partition of 232 GB in size.

It has Programs installed on it, being used by the Windows XP Home
Edition Service Pack 2 operating system on the NTFS File System on an
internal Hard Drive.

MS-DOS does not see the USB Drive.

How does one convert a FAT32 File System to NTFS without the need to
reformat the Drive?

I have rebooted the computer, cleanly without Startup programs, but
still got the Handles in use message.

Scheduling a Convert of the USB Hard Drive did not work, because it
could not determine the File System in use.

Ideas?

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hi All,

Situation: Using an USB Hard Drive externally thru a Hub, formatted
with FAT32 File System. Drive is one partition of 232 GB in size.

It has Programs installed on it, being used by the Windows XP Home
Edition Service Pack 2 operating system on the NTFS File System on an
internal Hard Drive.

MS-DOS does not see the USB Drive.

How does one convert a FAT32 File System to NTFS without the need to
reformat the Drive?

I have rebooted the computer, cleanly without Startup programs, but
still got the Handles in use message.

Scheduling a Convert of the USB Hard Drive did not work, because it
could not determine the File System in use.

Ideas?

Bypass the hub and connect the drive to a local USB port. Ensure that
the drive has been assigned a letter and that no processes access it,
including the programs on it, temp settings or temporary internet files, or
System Restore, or antivirus programs. You may also want to disconnect
from any networks for the duration of the process.

It's no surprise that MS-DOS can't see a USB drive or access any NTFS drive
(without special 3rd party drivers) or convert a FAT32 drive to NTFS. Are
you confusing MS-DOS with the command prompt, or booting in safe
mode/command prompt only? They are *not* the same thing.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/convertfat.mspx

To dump the open handles, you could run CHKDSK with the /r or /r switch,
which will invalidate open handles. It may also be that the file system is
damaged on that drive, and chkdsk should tell you about this (and correct
the problem).

Also note other considerations for the conversion, as seen here:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.php

HTH
-pk



HTH
-pk

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi All,

Situation: Using an USB Hard Drive externally thru a Hub,
formatted with FAT32 File System. Drive is one partition of 232 GB in
size.
It has Programs installed on it, being used by the Windows XP Home
Edition Service Pack 2 operating system on the NTFS File System on an
internal Hard Drive.

MS-DOS does not see the USB Drive.

Correct. There's no USB support in DOS.

Besides, if there's nothing on it but Windows programs, you couldn't do
anything with it in DOS anyway.

How does one convert a FAT32 File System to NTFS without the need
to reformat the Drive?

Before I answer that, let me point that if you expect that to make the drive
visible to DOS, it will not.

To convert to NTFS, you use the CONVERT command. But first read
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm because there's an issue regarding
cluster size that isn't obvious.

Also note that conversion is a big step, affecting everything on your drive.
When you take such a big step, no matter how unlikely, it is always possible
that something could go wrong. For that reason, it's prudent to make sure
you have a backup of anything you can't afford to lose before beginning.