Restoring Fat32 on NTFS

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by leofola, Mar 19, 2008.

  1. leofola

    leofola Private E-2

    Hi all,
    I've just realised (after 2 years) that my laptop's boot partition is Fat32.
    I now need this laptop for recording- and playing-, live music, so I'm guessing i need to make it NTFS.
    Is this correct?

    What is the best way to do this?

    If i make a Ghost image of the Fat32 partition and then format it to NTFS with Paragon, will I be able to restore the (Fat32)image to the (NTFS)partition without conflict?
     
    leofola, Mar 19, 2008
    #1
  2. Jerkyking

    Jerkyking Sergeant Major

    Here is one way to do it... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881

    What OS do you have? I believe XP can do it. Right Click My Computer... Manage... select Disk Management... select the disk and right click, there should be an option to convert. I'm not able to acces my book or XP machine but I recall doing it.

    The biggest thing about NTFS is security and sharing. FAT32 should not impact what your currently using it for. Make a back up first before you try it
     
    Jerkyking, Mar 19, 2008
    #2
  3. leofola

    leofola Private E-2

    I'm running XP Home.
    If i make a Ghost image of the Fat32 partition and then format it to NTFS with Paragon, will I be able to restore the (Fat32)image to the (NTFS)partition without conflict?
     
    leofola, Mar 20, 2008
    #3
  4. Jerkyking

    Jerkyking Sergeant Major

    You should not should not have to restore the image. The conversion process should keep the data intact but a backup is always a good idea. Forget what I said about Disk Manager doing it for you... I got confused between Basic and Dynamic Disks. But the link will walk you through the convert process via the command line.
     
    Jerkyking, Mar 20, 2008
    #4
  5. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    No it wont conflict BUT recovering a Fat32 saved image will revert the NTFS converted HD back to Fat32 as it will overwrite the whole hard drive, as they dont just put the data back but also copy all the file format and partition tables etc

    As Jerkyking mentions the convert code from the Microsoft link he posted will convert your Fat32 drive to NTFS and retain your existing data intact ( note: as also mentioned always backup all your data before doing this, in your case make a cloned image backup before converting ). once converted to NTFS, you can create a new clone image of your HD and this will be in NTFS format, so if you need to restore, you will restore the HD to the NTFS format.
     
    DavidGP, Mar 20, 2008
    #5
  6. usafveteran

    usafveteran MajorGeek

    No, that's not correct. No need to convert to NTFS for "recording- and playing-, live music". So, base your decision on other factors, such as the pros and cons given at http://www.nextlev.com/Windows/Tech/ntfs.htm
     
    usafveteran, Mar 20, 2008
    #6

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