FAt32 v NTFS question

1

1eyedjack

New Member
I try back up files from my local hard drive (Win Vista home premium, NTFS format) to an external drive (Adata, FAT32), using a simple Copy/Paste procedure provided in Windows Explorer.
None of the files exceed (or even approach) 4Gb which I understand to be the maximum supported by FAT32.
And yet occasionally I get a popup advising that some of the "properties" of the file will not be copied and do I wish to continue.

Can someone please tell me what sort of properties are lost in these situations, and whether it is important?

Thanks
 
have you let the files copy then checked them aslong as the file is still the same and perfectly usable and viewable then its fine, but as for the fat32 system on an external drive ntfs is better, fat32 is mostly for usb sticks because they are portable and regularly plugged into other tech like dvd players, tvs etc, and alot of them only work if the usb stick is fat32, but for an external drive just getting connected to laptops or desktops, i would reformat it to ntfs
 
In order to not lose your data during the backup process,you should convert your FAT32 file system drive to the NTFS file system.To do that,open the COMMAND PROMPT (usually located in the PROGRAMS menu in the START button or simply go to "Run",type "cmd.exe" and click the OK button or the ENTER button on your keyboard.Now inside of that command prompt write the following command:

convert D: /fs:ntfs

NOTE 1: "D:" is the drive letter of that FAT32 file system drive which you want to convert to the NTFS file system.Your drive might have different letter so be sure that you WRITE CORRECT DRIVE LETTER!!!

When you are asked are you sure that you want to proceed,just confirm that you do want to proceed.After the conversion of the FAT32 file system to the NTFS file system is finished,you will be notified with the following message: "Conversion complete"

NOTE 2: If you really want to use the FAT32 file system instead of the NTFS file system because you are for example using MS-DOS then I can understand that.MS-DOS really does not support the NTFS file system at all.However if that's the reason,convert the FAT32 file system to the NTFS file system anyway because there IS the DOS OS that can support the NTFS file system and it's called "NTFS4DOS".





Cheers!
 
Thanks for this

I only left it as FAT32 because that is the way it came out of the box. I guess presumably because FAT32 is better supported by other operating systems and at the factory they don't know what it is going to be plugged into.

Anyway, quick follow-up question:

Can I convert it from FAT32 to NTFS while it has a lot of data already stored on it, without losing that data?

Thanks
 
Thanks again

Purely out of curiosity, I would still like to know what information I am losing by having it on FAT32. It is only on a very small proportion of files that I get the popup advising loss of (unspecified) properties, and for the most part, for years, I have never experienced a problem with it.

By the way, is it possible to convert from NTFS back to FAT32 should I feel the need? The external drive is a USB drive, and while I only wish at present to plug it into a Windows PC, who knows what the future might bring. FAT32 keeps more options open, but if I can chop and change at will then it is no problem whatever I do.
 
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Interesting article

and yet ...

It makes no reference to the 4Gb maximum individual file size to be stored in FAT32 (perhaps I imagined it)

It makes no reference to the loss of file properties when saving from NTFS drive to FAT32 drive, UNLESS possibly those properties relates solely to the security permissions, which are mentioned.
 
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