FAT32 / NTFS

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Bill Ridgeway - 19 May 2008 18:53 GMT

I have a hard disk (installed with Windows XP) which is formatted to FAT32.
I would like it formatted to NTFS. Is it possible to effectively change the
format without the bother of re-installing everything from scratch? I was
thinking of something like cloning the hard disk to one already formatted to
NTFS but there may be another way. I would guess the answer is no but it's
worth an ask just in case I'm wrong.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway

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Malke - 19 May 2008 19:28 GMT

> I have a hard disk (installed with Windows XP) which is formatted to
> FAT32.
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> NTFS but there may be another way. I would guess the answer is no but
> it's worth an ask just in case I'm wrong.

Yes, you can convert from FAT32 to NTFS. Have your data backed up as a
normal precaution and read this article first:

http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm - Converting FAT32 to NTFS by Alex
Nichol

Malke

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Bruce Chambers - 20 May 2008 01:57 GMT

> I have a hard disk (installed with Windows XP) which is formatted to FAT32.
> I would like it formatted to NTFS. Is it possible to effectively change the
> format without the bother of re-installing everything from scratch?

You can safely convert your current hard drive to NTFS whenever
desired, without having to format the partition and reinstall
everything. As always when performing any serious changes, back up any
important data before proceeding, just in case. A little advance
preparation is also strongly recommended, so you can avoid any
performance hits caused by the default cluster size:

Converting FAT32 to NTFS in Windows
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm

> I was
> thinking of something like cloning the hard disk to one already formatted to
> NTFS but there may be another way. I would guess the answer is no but it's
> worth an ask just in case I'm wrong.

Couldn't work. Cloning overwrites the file system of the target
partition/drive with the file system of the source partition/drive.

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Bill Ridgeway - 20 May 2008 09:11 GMT

Thanks Malke and Bruce for replying.

I did take the precaution of first cloning the hard disk. The actual
conversion from FAT32 to NTFS was straight forward and didn't take long. I
was expecting something more complicated than it was. NTFS does (seem) to
go faster than FAT so it was well worth it and can recommend it to anyone
else using Windows XP on a FAT formatted hard disk.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway

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Bruce Chambers - 21 May 2008 01:55 GMT

> Thanks Malke and Bruce for replying.

You're welcome.

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