fat32 annoyance\question

Clark the White · 25 Feb 2006 at 15:50

Hi guys,
I have a laptop with 100gig h.d.d. and i recently discovered its fat32 (rank) anyway when i was attempting to extract a 4gig image from rar file (transferring from my desktop) i got a silly error saying something about cannt handle large files over 4gig or something. my question is, is there a way to convert fat 32 to ntfs without having to wipe my drive? my 100gig is in 2 partitions c: - for windows etc and d: is my primary partition for data storage. i already have loads of apps installed on d so i'd rather not have to reinstall them if i can help it. my other question is, is it poss to have one of the partitions as fat32 and the other as ntfs? im sure it prob is but i wanted to check with you guys 1st, p.s. lol at my "Thug" rating

Explicit · 25 Feb 2006 at 16:06

Start > Run > cmd.exe > Type in "convert C: /fs:ntfs" without the quotation marks

Replace C: with D: to do the other partition.

And yes, you can leave one as FAT32, and have the other as NTFS

Clark the White · 25 Feb 2006 at 16:14

wow! wasnt expecting such a quick reply, thanks a lot for that mate, i'll buy you a beer! of course obviously i will have to drink it as your not here

thanks

Explicit · 25 Feb 2006 at 19:48

^ lol, I'll take delivery of that beer, thanks!

Sumanji · 25 Feb 2006 at 22:03

Explicit said:
Start > Run > cmd.exe > Type in "convert C: /fs:ntfs" without the quotation marks

Doesn't that wipe the drive though...?

Explicit · 25 Feb 2006 at 22:09

sumang007 said:
Doesn't that wipe the drive though...?

Nope, I've done it myself a countless number of times and all data remained intact.

smids · 26 Feb 2006 at 01:50

It can erase the drive, but only if it goes seriously wrong, or the HDU is on its way out, in which case you would have lost the data anyway.

I have done that too and it is fine. My laptop (IBM) in the Auto-reinstall windows thing actually does this as part of the process once windows is installed. Not sure why it doesn't just format NTFS initially in the first place but oh well, IBM programmed it like that so they must have had a reason.

TBH, gotta love that auto-reintall - 3 buttons are pressed and then go away for 1 hour to come back to a freshly reinstalled, IBM software updated and reinstalled system ready to use straight away. Sorry, I'm rambling...

Explicit · 26 Feb 2006 at 02:03

Tuck your willy back in

MAllen · 26 Feb 2006 at 18:32

Some XP systems come with FAT32 formats purely because the recovery disks need to use FAT32.

I have run that convert command tons of times without problems. Just make sure you are plugged into the mains at the time.