Converting file systems on the fly

slipd · 1 Dec 2019 at 17:43

Hi guys,

I've got a couple of flash drives that I use on different platforms; some only read fat32, some exfat and some ntfs etc. I've used a command in Windows before to convert the fs without formatting the drive. Can someone remind me?

I just followed a web guide and ended up formatting the drive, fortunately I had a backup

Thanks.

slipd · 1 Dec 2019 at 19:46

This: convert x: /fs:fat32

andshrew · 1 Dec 2019 at 19:49

You can convert FAT16/FAT32 to NTFS but you can't go back.

Code:

convert drive: /fs:ntfs

slipd · 1 Dec 2019 at 19:50

andshrew said:
You can convert FAT16/FAT32 to NTFS but you can't go back.

Code:

convert drive: /fs:ntfs

Can you not? I thought you could? I'm sure i had a command that basically meant you could flip between the big three...

andshrew · 1 Dec 2019 at 20:03

slipd said:
Can you not? I thought you could? I'm sure i had a command that basically meant you could flip between the big three...

Reasonably certain there is nothing built in which would do this, I imagine there would be too many complexities in these file systems to make it possible to seamlessly move between them.

There may be a third party tool that would do it but I'd be surprised.

AHarvey · 2 Dec 2019 at 16:43

What systems are you using it on and what kind of files are they?

Might be easier to have cloud storage that syncs to the flash drives when you plug them into each system. Got to be faster than converting them all over and over.

slipd · 2 Dec 2019 at 22:52

AHarvey said:
What systems are you using it on and what kind of files are they?

Might be easier to have cloud storage that syncs to the flash drives when you plug them into each system. Got to be faster than converting them all over and over.

Mainly proprietary systems at work, but some mac and some linux too. I'm being lazy, but also tidy - I should keep about 3x on a chain, save me keep converting...

Thanks.

Armageus · 2 Dec 2019 at 22:57

slipd said:
Mainly proprietary systems at work, but some mac and some linux too. I'm being lazy, but also tidy - I should keep about 3x on a chain, save me keep converting...

Can't you just create 3 different partitions on the same drive?

slipd · 2 Dec 2019 at 23:08

Armageus said:
Can't you just create 3 different partitions on the same drive?

GENIUS.

I seriously keep forgetting you can partition flash memory - I think it stems from a cheap Chinese stick I used for media going bad on me. I used to use that for watching content on different platforms; ps4, bluray, tv's etc.

Thanks mate!

Quartz · 2 Dec 2019 at 23:27

slipd said:
I've got a couple of flash drives that I use on different platforms; some only read fat32, some exfat and some ntfs etc.

I find it difficult to believe that there are platforms these days that don't read FAT32.