Fat32 to NTFS in XP w/o Re-Install?

[ragejg]

FAT32 seems to be giving my friend problems in XP. I don't know why his file system ain't NTFS, but he's having some funky old-school-ish probs with XP, and I'd like to convert his drive to NTFS... Can this be done in XP, or is a complete redux required?

[The Baron]

convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

Do that from a command prompt (inside of XP--I BELIEVE it prompts you to reboot and it does it then).

However, it's not as good as a natively NTFS formatted drive, but it's still better than FAT32.

[ragejg]

thx... I'll try it and post results w/benchies.

[Blakhart]

If that does not give good results, you may want to format and ntfs from the start.

[Greg]

Unless it is a great hastle to you, I would recommend reformatting to NTFS rather than converting. The format will make a more efficient disk layout, perhaps improving performance or drive space efficiency.

[The Baron]

Yeah, of course reformatting is better, but I don't think it's that much better. I used both, and the jump from the NTFS-from-FAT32 partition to the pure NTFS partition was a lot smaller than upgrading the thing from FAT32 to NTFS.

[thcdru2k]

just run a good old defrag on your drive when your done. the difference shouldn't even be noticable than.

[eL_PuSHeR]

Back on the matter about best cluster size on a NTFS partition, after converting it via CONVERT utility: Powerquest Partition Magic 7 has an option to align FAT32 partitions to 4KB boundaries, thus making CONVERT to create 4KB cluster size NTFS partitions.

[ricercar]

Originally posted by =SSC=The Baron
convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

Does this work in reverse? convert drive_letter: /fs:FAT32

I've not been able to find a way to format a 1394a/FireWire HD as FAT32 under XP Pro, and I want to use I use my MP3 library on a few OS that won't mount NTFS volumes (MacOS, BeOS).

[netape]

You could use Partition Magic (8) to convert it back to FAT32... But it requires formatting your drive tho.