I'm running Windows XP Professional with SP 2 installed. I'v got a 40 GB HDD with three partitions, C,D and E, C being the primary(system) partition. The D & E drives are configured with NTFS file system but my C drive has FAT32 file system. Is there any way of changing the file system to NTFS without re formatting the partiton and re loading windows?
ya there is one through DOS but i suggest not to do it(not due to data loss but due to cluster size) any way here is the way to do so go for run->command in command prompt type(only in winXP) convert/? this will give u all the details in simple manner u can do it like convert c: /fs :ntfs
Go to Start--> RUN and type " cmd" without the quotes... then type "convert c: /fs:ntfs " with out the quotes... It will prompt u to do it at next reboot ..say yes...
i think win xp gives an option to upgrade to ntfs try right click and see (sorry i am in debian right now so cannot confirm it)
JAK wrote: perfect solution .. just an addition to the msg. . it'll say u need to unmount the drive and whethere u should force it to unmount .. ofcourse choose no ... then it'll give u the restart option .. that time click yes and next time search the forum right here === > http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3568&highlight=fat32+ntfs see ??
Tell me guys if i convert an existing FAT 32 partition in to an NTFS one by the method spoken about above , will i lose the data on the fat 32 partiton?
But converting like this wont give u all the benefits of NTFS, for true NTFS properties, ull need to format and reinstalll. and choose NTFS as the FS while installing.