How to go from FAT 32 to NTFS

[Jester73440]

Ok let me start by saying I'm not too great with computers so I'm sorry if any of this is a no brainer. But here is how it started

I have win XP PRO Dell Desk top P4 1.3Ghz so anyway Last week my computer stopped reading my CD-R and DVD+R I got a code 19 which is damanged REG files so I tried to restore my system to a pervious date all that did was screw up my bootloader and my computer would do nothing but restart.So I put in my old Win 98 disc cause i lent my XP out.Loaded 98 now when doing that I put on FAT 32 cause I was unaware of the differnece.

After putting on 98 and getting everything working I then got XP and upgraded. Everything seemed ok but I could not copy any DVDs and my CPU usage would not drop under 100% no matter how many process I had running.After hearing FAT 32 does not support files larger then 2GB I knew this was wrong for me.So I tried to reformat and convert back to NTFS windows loads FAT 32 is on there I formated it 5 more times dropping it to 98 then upgrading then full XP install tried it everyway and FAT 32 was back.

I really apperciate the help I have been screwing with this for a week and I'm ready to toss it out the window and forget I own a computer.Thanks again and sorry for the long post just wanted to cover everything to make it easier


-Steve

 

[kboy]

Try this Link Dude. Good Luck! http://www.ntfs.com/quest3.htm]

 

[ScrewDriver]

convert command - but remember without loosing the files you cannot revert back to FAT32 again....! Its one way...!

 

[JQG]

Go into your BIOS, set the boot sequence to start with CDROM as first boot option, put your XP disk in and run an install from the disk, during the setup, you can delete the FAT32 partition, re-partition then format it as NTFS with no problem.

 

[petogaz]

convert command - but remember without loosing the files you cannot revert back to FAT32 again....! Its one way...!

i dont agree, u can revert back to FAT32 by using partion magic 7.
it's the only prog can do that.

replying to Jester73440 u can do what kboy adviced u that works.

good luck !

 

[mikesgroovin]

Yes, petogaz is correct. You can convert from NTFS to FAT32 with PM ver. 7 and newer.

-Mike

 

[lavenderAC]

Why is NTFS better than FAT32? Does it work faster? The thing is that when I use the Win 98 bootdisk to boot, it can not detect any HDD with NTFS, which is a real problem if I want to format the drive. Is there anyway to get around that?

 

[ekÆsine]

NTFS is more stable and has more security. use the win2k or winXP CD and boot from it. delete a partition and remake. it will give 4 options to format. make sure you delete the right partition or you will lose all data.

you can also install over a previous windows installation, it is safer this way since you can't delete partitions on accident.

http://www.evozero.gamma.timdorr.com/computer-guides/basic_disks.htm

 

[mikesgroovin]

Earlier versions of Windows will always recognize the drive being there. It's just that Windows9x and ME systems can't read what's on the local drive in the NTFS format. You can view the partition with a Win98 boot disk. Once you are in FDISK, you have to choose Non-Dos Partition.

-Mike

 

[Apokalipse]

well I think you can revert back to FAT32 with the XP disk, I saw the option to convert to FAT32 using my laptops XP CD after I got a new HDD for it