Will the convert tool change an external USB drive from FAT32 to N

B

Barry_M

Windows XP Professional SP3

I attached an external USB disc to my system and loaded data onto it before
discovering that its file system is FAT32, whereas all my other drives are
NTFS, which I prefer.

When I use the command CONVERT ??: /FS:NTFS and confirm the two following
questions with Y, setting up conversion to happen at the next boot. However,
after restarting I receive the message, "Cannot determine file system of
drive ??:" Bootup then completes and conversion does not take place.

Does the convert tool not work on USB drives?
 
S

Shenan Stanley

Barry_M said:
Windows XP Professional SP3

I attached an external USB disc to my system and loaded data onto
it before discovering that its file system is FAT32, whereas all my
other drives are NTFS, which I prefer.

When I use the command CONVERT ??: /FS:NTFS and confirm the two
following questions with Y, setting up conversion to happen at the
next boot. However, after restarting I receive the message, "Cannot
determine file system of drive ??:" Bootup then completes and
conversion does not take place.

Does the convert tool not work on USB drives?

The conversion tool works fine on USB drives.

However - IMO - you'd be better off in the longrun moving the stuff off it
temporarily, formatting it NTFS and copying the stuff back.

And remember - once you do that - its portability is decreased.
 
B

Barry_M

Shenan Stanley said:
The conversion tool works fine on USB drives.

However - IMO - you'd be better off in the longrun moving the stuff off it
temporarily, formatting it NTFS and copying the stuff back.

And remember - once you do that - its portability is decreased.
Thanks for your reply, Shenan. I am glad to know that it should work. What I
really need to learn, however, is why it is not working for me.

I could move my data off temporarily, but there is about 750GB and that is
quite a few DVDs to burn, or more likely another HDD to move it all onto for
a similar price.
 

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