Format Second Hard Drive

So I'm trying to take my home movies from my new camera and burn them onto DVD's, and I have everything I need, except my hard drive is still formated as FAT32, and I can't save any of my 13 GIG Files because FAT32 only saves up to 4 GIG Files. So I want to just go buy a new 200 GIG Hard Drive, and pop it in my computer. Could I format that as NTSF, and save the movies to that, or would it not let me because I was running XP on a FAT32 drive? But if windows would let me, how would I go about being able to format the second drive as NTSF while leaving my current one alone? Any help would be appreciated!~Dan

 

Or is there an easy way to convert my drive to NTSF without loosing anything? Thanks

 

First off, it's NTFS.

Second, yes, you can convert a drive from Fat32 to NTFS without reformatting.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307881&Product=winxp

However, I would suggest getting a second hard drive to use as a backup. I find it's easier to reformat the system drive that way. You've already got everything backed up on the second drive. It just makes life so much easier.

 

OK, it asks me to enter the Drives Volume Label.... how do I find that?

 

unless you have previously named the drive, the volume label is typically blank. try just hitting enter. it should tell you the volume is locked and prompt you to schedule a file system change upon the next boot... if you see this... hit yes and you're good to go.

as Wyatt_Earp said, its always nice to have a backup drive (or at least partition) to store important files on... that way you can reformat the windows drive (or partition) whenever necessary.

Also be aware that converting from FAT32 to NTFS will not give you the default NTFS cluster size of 4kb, which increases performance.
the only way to get 'true' NTFS is to completely reformat. Not important if you are happy with it and just want to save your home movies... but good to know for the future.

 

To find the drive's volume label, open up My Computer. Next to your hard drive, it will say something like "Volume (C: )" Volume would be the volume name. If it says Local Disk, the volume name is blank.