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#1 (permalink) |
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Bronze Member
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Posts: 62
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hi
I have an external hard drive that is FAT32 at the moment but I want to change it to NTFS. Is this easy to do and how do I go about it. Also I have files on there at the moment I want to keep, can I do this? Thanks Buzz |
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#2 (permalink) |
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Moderator
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http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881
the above link has everything you need, a simple command line trigger will convert from fat32 to ntfs without loss of data
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#3 (permalink) |
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Moderator
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Backup anything you have on the drive first. It's not supposed to cause data loss but it doesn't always work. I know a couple people who have had to reformat because the conversion screwed up.
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#4 (permalink) |
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VIP Member
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yes listen to cromewell. backup everything then change to ntfs. you will hvae all data, and if you have the standard hdd, and you put it in your computer, you cant change it back to fat32 or fat16. which means you can only install 2k vista xp or soething, you MIGHT be able to change it to fat again but i have not researched it deeply enough.
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#5 (permalink) |
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Diamond Member
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XP along with the older NT cored versions of Windows as well as Vista are all native to NTFS type partitions. XP is the only one that will install to the older Fat16 or Fat32 type partitions there. NTFS is also a more efficient and stable type without the headaches often seen with Fat.
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#7 (permalink) | |
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Diamond Member
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Quote:
And you dont need any special software, just either copy all the files to the internal hard drive or copy the files to blank DVD's.
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#8 (permalink) |
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Diamond Member
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The first thing to do is find out how many files/folders are involved and how drive space is used by them. A data dvd holds just over 4gb. If you have only have 4-5gb of free drive space you risk the chance of seeing error messages coming up about the lack of free space needed for virtual memory where the system creates a paging file. Those are generally about 2gb in size. One or more data dvds would then be one idea.
With multiple drives seeing multiple OSs backing up files for one drive goes to another with enough free space. With XP Home on the primary ide drive and Vista on the second I don't have to worry about filling the first sata drive with backups even with XP Pro installed there for temporary use. The ide drives are 238.4gb after partitioning and formatting while the now two sata drives are 465.88gb there. (ut oh! time for some rearranging here! )
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