XP fat32 to ntfs conversion

[Ron]

I tried to convert my E drive that is a slave from fat32
to ntfs. I get a error message that says " unable to
convert RAW drives" The WD 80 gig drive is formatted with
7 gigs of stuff on it that I dont want to loose by
reformatting the drive. Any suggestions?

 

[Jetro]

Supposedly XP cannot convert the FAT32 volume bigger than 32GB, as it
doesn't support the FAT32 volumes as big as such natively.
Save the 7GB of data somewhere else, repartition, and reformat E drive as
NTFS directly. I wouldn't recommend 3rd-party tools like Partition Magic w/o
copying the data first as well.

 

[Michael Cecil]

Supposedly XP cannot convert the FAT32 volume bigger than 32GB, as it
doesn't support the FAT32 volumes as big as such natively.

Incorrect. XP is only limited in that it will not create a FAT32 volume
larger than 32GB. It supports larger ones created though other means. It
can convert larger ones fine.

 

[Jetro]

It's better suggest anything instead of silly barking 'correct/incorrect'...
Do you think you're in kindergarten?

Ron,
If the disk utility treats it as RAW, i.e. 'unformatted', it means it cannot
read the partition table. Do you have an access to the data? Can you run
chkdsk on that volume?

 

[Michael Cecil]

It's better suggest anything instead of silly barking 'correct/incorrect'...
Do you think you're in kindergarten?

Apparently you are since you lack the netiquette to properly quote the
post to which you are responding.

 

[Jetro]

Okay, you're not in kindergarten, you're a netiquette cop, and your comments
are pointless as the comments of any cop. Again, you'd better do not prove
me wrong, if you 'think' so, but suggest something. FYI, this is the right
netiquette, unlike the spellchecking and disputation.

 

[Airman Basic]

Hmmm, so tell us more about your freudian aversion to cops, mein herr.

 

[Alex Nichol]

It's better suggest anything instead of silly barking 'correct/incorrect'...
Do you think you're in kindergarten?

I suggest though that you may cause people a lot of grief by putting
forward things that are incorrect at an elementary level. XP is capable
of reading a FAT 32 of any size, and provided it can do so, will be able
to convert it to NTFS.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I tried to convert my E drive that is a slave from fat32
to ntfs. I get a error message that says " unable to
convert RAW drives"

Can you open the drive in the ordinary way in My Computer? If so, it
suggests that there is corruption in the Convert tool.

If OTOH, it does not show in My Computer, and you are describing it as
'E' for other reasons, Go to Control Panel - Admin Tools - Computer
Management, select Disk Management and look lower right for the graphic
of the drive. See how the partition is described. If it is 'Healthy -
Unknown' a probable cause is that it has been marked as a Hidden one.
That can be adjusted with BootIT NG - see my page on adjusting the
alignment of FAT 32 partitions before converting, and using that tool,
select the partition, Properties and if here is an UnHide button, use
it.

If Disk manager shows anything else, let us know. It is possible that
using BootIT NG again would allow the Properties to change the partition
type to FAT 32, but *only* do this if sure of the present state.

 

[Jetro]

It's not mine, but common.
It's not Freudian, but practical.
It's not the aversion, but experience.

This newsgroup is not about psychoanalysis or police, so let's give it up
until I'll study more German, mein lieber Basic. You know the 'kindergarten'
word is rather international at least among the Latin-descending languages,
don't you?

 

[Jetro]

Now you're again...
I can't see any grief in my initial post - did I offer the wrong technical
solution? I admit the assumption about the convert tool wasn't perfect
(haven't converted for 6 or more years) but did it harm anyone or am I
alone? 'FAT32 of any size' has its limitation in MS implementation as well.

Now it's the 3rd day of this thread, and all new comments ain't related to
Ron's post by mine. "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the
same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use,
it will be measured to you." (Matt. 7:1-2)