FAT32 to NTFS

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buzzby

New Member
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Hi

Cheers for all the advice, whats the best way to back up all the data? It would take quite a few dvdr's.
Is there any software that deals specifically in data back up?

Buzz
 
buzzby said:
Hi

Cheers for all the advice, whats the best way to back up all the data? It would take quite a few dvdr's.
Is there any software that deals specifically in data back up?

Buzz
Click to expand...
Well you said it's an external hard drive, so why not just temporarily copy everything to the internal hard drive?

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.
 
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! :eek: )

 
NTFS is usually better. I would use it unless you have a good reason not to (such as dual booting with win9x or something)

FAT32 is good for smaller drives like thumb drives.
 
With nothing but older boards providing 98 drivers you can dual boot an older 9X-ME version of Windows but will have fun looking for any updated versions since there is no active support. Some 3rd party sites will carry the last of the last there. Updating an older system while preserving the original OS installed is done by slaving the original to the new XP drive. XP will easily go onto any Fat partition but you suffer from the loss of stability to some degree and performance overall.

For dual booting with an older OS the idea of having the Fat type dos driven OS on a separate Fat partition still allows access to the XP NTFS type by way of NT4Dos a small dos utility for accessing the NTFS partition from dos mode. For actually converting Fat to NTFS in XP the guide for this is seen at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881

How well will it work on an external drive would have to be tried out. Just backup any files first from it in the event you have to remove the present one for an NTFS replacement. At this point any older dos apps can be run through a virtual dos window for mounting the drive there. DOSBox does well for this even on Vista.
 
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