PC Peripherals HDD File System Question

[Freaky]

Hi All,
I've a 160 Giger on which there are 5 partitions - 2 for OS's and 3 for my other stuff. Now, the partitions for the OS's are NTFS while the other 3 are FAT32 ( Don't ask me why ). I wanna change the file system on the other 3 to NTFS. Will changing the file system affect the data on the partition ? Do I've to relocate all the data on each partitions before changing the file system ?
Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[zhopudey]

No problem. Just type " convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs"

e.g.

convert e: /fs:ntfs

 

[tracerbullet]

Hi All,

I've a 160 Giger on which there are 5 partitions - 2 for OS's and 3 for my other stuff. Now, the partitions for the OS's are NTFS while the other 3 are FAT32 ( Don't ask me why ). I wanna change the file system on the other 3 to NTFS. Will changing the file system affect the data on the partition ? Do I've to relocate all the data on each partitions before changing the file system ?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.

Start, run > cmd.exe

Convert [Drive letter] /FS:NTFS

Seamless and all your original data remains unaffected so you don't need to back anything up. Though Microsoft advises that you do—'in case of failure' etc. Here's a bit from the microsoft support site.

The Convert.exe utility is supplied with Windows to convert a FAT partition into an NTFS partition. Use of Convert.exe is straight forward, but there are considerations that should be taken into account before using the utility.

The following limitations should be recognized before converting a FAT partition to NTFS:

• The conversion is a one-way process. After a partition has been converted to NTFS, it is not possible to convert the partition back to a FAT partition. To restore the partition as a FAT partition, the partition would have to be reformatted as FAT (which would erase all data from the partition) and then data can be restored from backup.

• The system partition of a RISC-based computer cannot be changed to NTFS. The ARC specification requires that the system partition be FAT. It is possible to create a small (1 MB) FAT partition for the system partition and install Windows on an NTFS partition (the boot partition).

• Convert.exe requires a certain amount of free space be present on the drive in order to convert the file system. For additional information about the amount of free space required for a conversion, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

156560 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/156560/) Free space required to convert FAT to NTFS

NOTE: Although the chance of corruption or data loss during the conversion from FAT to NTFS is minimal, it is best to perform a full backup of the data on the drive that it is to be converted prior to executing the convert command. It is also recommended to verify the integrity of the backup before proceeding, as well as to run RDISK and update the emergency repair disk (ERD).

LINK

 

[Vandal]

Nice replies...they're right 100%...though I've used this several times....and I would recommend a backup....just in case atleast all your really irreplacable stuff

Hi All,
I've a 160 Giger on which there are 5 partitions - 2 for OS's and 3 for my other stuff. Now, the partitions for the OS's are NTFS while the other 3 are FAT32 ( Don't ask me why ). I wanna change the file system on the other 3 to NTFS. Will changing the file system affect the data on the partition ? Do I've to relocate all the data on each partitions before changing the file system ?
Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[Eazy]

....and I would recommend a backup....just in case atleast all your really irreplacable stuff

A bit of information....Backup softwares maintain the original file system when you restore a backup image. So if you start with FAT32 and make a backup of the partition and then format using NTFS and then restore the image you will be back with a FAT32 partition

 

[zhopudey]

He could just copy the imp files to another disk.

 

[dipdude]

i converted my 30gb fat32 to ntfs with convert command. all my data on the drive was in the same state as before, so it is safe...just have some free space.

 

[SunnyBoi]

I converted all of my 250gigs to NTFS from FAT32 the same way...i didnt get any corruption whatsoever

 

[Eazy]

i converted my 30gb fat32 to ntfs with convert command. all my data on the drive was in the same state as before, so it is safe...just have some free space.

With lots of success stories with the convert command there are a very few horror stories of data loss/corruption which I have come across in various forums - when it works fine it is GREAT but if on a computer it decides to give you trouble then you will really be up the creek...... I have converted my various external USB drives back and forth FAT32/NTFS/FAT32/NTFS and when I have nothing much to do I dont mind doing a backup with Acronis True Image formating the drive and then restoring the files/directories from True Images "Explore Image" option which is really a file restore and not an image restore. I successfully did this even with a partition with the OS (Win98SE) on it.

I came across a thread in a forum on why the convert command is not very good to use...

Converting a partition from FAT32 to NTFS can be done by an inbuilt utility in the Windows XP operating system — but it is important to realise that it is a one-way process. You cannot convert back, except possibly by use of Partition Magic 7.01, and that is not always successful. Windows XP has no tool for converting from NTFS to FAT32.

There are a couple of things to do in advance if the conversion is to be efficient. If you do not take these preliminary steps, you are liable to end up with only 512 byte clusters, which is not a good idea.

What happens is that FAT32 partitions formatted by most Windows versions except Windows XP itself (and possibly Windows 2000) have an odd multiple of 2 kilobytes in the “system†sectors before the data area, where the File Allocation Tables themselves and clustering start. Therefore, clusters 4 KB in size are not aligned on 4 KB boundaries, as NTFS will want. CONVERT.EXE, finding it cannot use 4K clusters, gives up and makes the clusters only 512 bytes (one half KB) instead. (For a table of the varying default cluster sizes used by FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS for partitions of varying sizes, click here.)