Converting fat32 to ntfs?

Jock · 16 Aug 2008 at 11:09

A friend of mine has a mybook:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=347

His problem is that its fat32 and he really needs it as ntfs so he can transferm more than 4gig at a time, anyone have any idea how he could go about converting it?

Mp4 · 16 Aug 2008 at 11:12

imo think he would have to format again to ntfs

Werewolf · 16 Aug 2008 at 11:13

I'm not sure if XP/Vista can do it (I've got a feeling they can as long as it's not the boot drive), otherwise I'm certain Partition Magic can do it, possibly including if it's a boot drive.

However that's assuming it has data on it (in which case he'll want to back it up first!), otherwise if it's a blank drive any partition software including Windows XP/Vista control panel/admin tools or setup should be able to do it.

Craig321 · 16 Aug 2008 at 11:21

It is possible under Windows XP and Vista using the convert command.

For example if you want to convert the D drive:
convert D: /fs:ntfs

I'm pretty sure it doesn't format the drive, it simply converts the file system, but tell him to backup before he runs the command anyway.

Dano · 16 Aug 2008 at 11:25

Yup, convert will do it, I've used it plenty of times and not lost any data yet.

hp7909 · 16 Aug 2008 at 11:28

Craig321 said:
tell him to backup before he runs the command anyway.

Second that. In fact maybe easier to copy data off then format as NTFS

Craig321 · 16 Aug 2008 at 11:33

hp7909 said:
Second that. In fact maybe easier to copy data off then format as NTFS

That'd probably be the cleanest way, but using the convert command is safe and easy.

manveruppd · 16 Aug 2008 at 11:34

I heard there's a performance hit if the drive is converted from FAT32, you might be better off reformatting.

Jock · 16 Aug 2008 at 13:59

Excellent, thanks for all the help guys.

Aod · 16 Aug 2008 at 17:01

honestly, who would format a 1tb HDD as FAT32?!?

Silly Western Digital!