Hey all :) Is there anyway to convert a fat32 HD to NTSF without reformating? I am trying to avoid copying all the stuff on one drive to another then back again if I can hehe.

Partition Magic should be able to do that for ya... I'm pretty sure of that. :) And I think Win2k has an option for converting the file system to NTFS, so XP might have the same option.

I believe Daymond42 is correct. I have performed this operation in 2K with no destruction. Being MS I'm never sure whether it was good luck or good management. Best of luck

But I believe that if you convert using the included MS tools it retains the old FAT32 allocation unit size, or at least limits how small you can make it more than for a de novo format, so you lose part of the benfit of NTFS.

Did I mention... Back up any vital information before your attempt. It may be a PITA, but...

RHaseltine, That I did not know. Thanks for the "heads up"

if you go to a command prompt you can type convert x: /fs:ntfs That'll do it for you, takes around 15-40 minutes per drive depending on size and speed. I've done this dozens of times on countless computers and I've never had any issues during or afterwards, but definietly back up the data before hand. There's no real great space benefit in NTFS over FAT32 so be sure you're doing this for a good reason, if you convert it, you will not be able to access it from a DOS boot disk, so if you're computer goes tits-up and you don't have an Emergency Repair Disk and a 2k or Windows XP CD you might have difficulty resurrecting your machine. In short, be sure. Best wishes Jody

Oh x: obviously means whichever drive you wish to convert, so c: d: etc

yes ther is in W2k and XP, but don't let the machine do it for you, it allots a ridduculously small cluster size... Do a search online for the info, I think you want a 2 or 4 MB cluster, and I think the default you'll get if you let it is 512K... later jb

Attached Link: http://http://www.ntfs.com/quest3.htm

Sorry, too many http://`s. Delete one.

Partition Magic does this perfectly. Did it the other day on 2 partitions. Back up data of course. :] Fish

You'll find it best to back all the data up onto something, remake the partition, then re-install the data. As mentioned earlier, convert.exe is 1) a one-way trip, and 2) inefficient as Hell. (mind you, most of my partitions are in ext2, but since Windows hasn't a clue as to what those are...) The one and only advantage you're gonna get out of NTFS is the ability to set permissions on the files and folders on the partition. This is a real good idea if your poser directory is loaded with stuff like "Ulf's Penis Prop", and you don't want your kids to fire up Poser (or at least your copy of it) inadvertantly. (Incidentally, you can keep more than one copy of Poser, even on the same hard drive, and each in turn will run just fine. Handy if you do have kids and want them playing with Poser, just not, say, the Vicky genital props and the leather corset kit.) Otherwise, NTFS isn't much of an advantage. FAT32 runs gobs faster, and has far less overhead (expect to lose around 2GB for every 20GB of space to just use NTFS.) FAT32 is readable by OSX or Linux no sweat, and an NTFS partition is unreadable by Win98, ME, and earlier. HTH a little, /P

Hope To Hinder a little huh, Pengy! LOL! This an argument which will boil on for ever... ... basically are we not talking swings and roundabouts here? My input to this discussion... NT is designed around NTFS... NT File System. The FAT32 disk access code is tacked onto XP and doesn't always work properly. (Nice and specific, huh! It's been a long day!) I've found this while researching the problems PBooost sometimes has with FAT32 under XP. The plot thinkens... H:)

Actually, not here to hinder at all (no, really, I'm not...) BTW, NTFS itself was initially put together as a way to add UNIX-like permissions and security (to compare with *ix' chmod and chown ), and to get the early stages of POSIX compliancy. Dunno all the specifics about how XP handles FAT32 (the poster never specified which OS version he/she had), but I do know that: 1) NTFS demands more overhead than FAT32 (and damned near anything else). In a 40GB hard drive, you can expect NTFS to eat 4.something GB, FAT32 to eat two and a half GB. Ever wondered why you could never format an NTFS floppy? 2) FAT32 is faster, mostly because it doesn't have to perform permissions checks and ownership checks each time a file is accessed. (shrug) - not arguing at all, and the choice for the poster is a Windows one no matter which way he/she goes... no skin off my butt in either direction. /P

LOL... didn't mean argument, maybe discussion would be more appropriate! Sorry Peng.

wow.. thanks for all the responses guys! Truly! The main reason I am looking to do it is I can work with Pboost. I am finding 50% of the time the banks are locked and I believe its because one drive is 20 gig fat32 and the other is 60 gig NTFS. hehe My machines configuration is weird. Built it myself so that explains why lol. The C: drive is the 20 gig and the F drive is the 60 gig which is the one I boot from. I will back everything up and try these suggestions! Thank you kindly!!

Oh sorry btw.. using XP pro hehe. I should have mentioned that. sorry once again. hehe now you have me thinking. I actually assumed NTSF was faster so I have been set straight on that. Thanks again for all the help peoples!