FAT32 to NTFS Conversion - Safe for sure ?

[din]

OK, here comes the nOOb question http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/images/icons/icon11.gif

I have 3 HDD in my PC. Two internal (Samsung 80 and Seagate 250) and one External (WD Passport - 80). I partitioned all but I forgot to make everything same format, I mean some are FAT32 and some are NTFS :( I already installed a lot of things and prefer not to re-format and re-install everything.

I am having some problems now. Not severe though. For example :

1. Searching for files - sometimes the PC hangs (hope thats the correct word to use )

2. When I use Flashget to download large files, it downloads only part of it. For example, when I tried Opensuse 11 (4.3 GB or so), it showed 299 MB and downloaded only that much :( Downloading files upto 1 GB is ok it seems.

I had a look at This Link (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984(TechNet.10).aspx) and I think I can do it (Uncle feel confident :D).

Still, lil worried, is it 100% safe to do the conversion for all drives including the one on which the OS (Win XP) is ?

Anyone tried that before ? Any experience / comments / suggestions on this ?

Thanks in advance.

[infra_red_dude]

I've tried it .. and the success rate is pretty high :D Its always advisable to take backup of imp. data. My OS partition was successfully converted to NTFS but a data partition was screwed up. Out of 10, 9 properly converted while 1 went kaput.

[QwertyManiac]

I haven't had issues with the conversion either, just ensure you don't lose power! And do a deep disk scan (with error fixing), before attempting to convert if you doubt there's something wrong.

[ThinkFree]

I too didn't have any problem after conversion.

[Betruger]

I have converted fat32 to ntfs lot of times...and no problems have found..
it is 100% safe tool... but only do with windows own tool.. not go to third party solution..

[Garbage]

My success rate is 100% till date for FAT32 to NTFS conversion! :)

I think, it's safe.. period..

[prasad_den]

Same here... no issues, even on my 5 year old PC, in which I did the conversion 2 weeks earlier..

[adi007]

i have never experienced any problems in converting fat32 to ntfs..
To be frank i have also downgraded from ntfs to fat32 many times without any losses using partition tools :cool:

[din]

Thank you very much for the fast replies.

I am going to convert one by one. Will convert a drive which does not contain very important data, then next and so on.

Will keep you updated (wish me good luck lol)

[T159]

I haven't had issues with the conversion either, just ensure you don't lose power! And do a deep disk scan (with error fixing), before attempting to convert if you doubt there's something wrong.
priority A preconditions before converting :D

One of my partition got screwed due to power out.

[Kenshin]

It works, once converted 5 partitions including the primary (required a restart)...din screw up anything

[din]

din screw up anything

:( No, I do not screw up everything

(LOL, was kidding, I got what you meant )

[techtronic]

Theoretically FAT 32 Partitions can span only 32 GB and a single file size can only be less than 4 GB of size.

Unless you want to have Win-Lin Dual boot, i suggest NTFS

[Kenshin]

:( No, I do not screw up everything

(LOL, was kidding, I got what you meant )

:D

[alok4best]

as Techtronic said, FAT33 supports a Max file size of 4GBs..
There no issues in conversion.
However I wud suggest u do this (Prevention is always better than cure).
suppose u have 4 drives.
pick up a drive.
cut or copy all data in any other drive.
now convert the picked drive. once done, move back the data.
A little extra work, but you are assured that ur data won't go.

[dheeraj_kumar]

Yeah, +1 for alok's reply... keep rotating data between all drives you have, and it should be done fine. I do it always, and I feel it more safer than converting it directly.

[T159]

However I wud suggest u do this (Prevention is always better than cure).
suppose u have 4 drives.
pick up a drive.
cut or copy all data in any other drive.
now convert the picked drive
yeah but it screwed the adjacent partition too once for me :D
Ek toh gaya hi saath mein saath wale partition ko bhi le gaya:(

[Krazy_About_Technology]

I have done it a couple of times on different computers, never created any problem for me. Just make sure there are no error on the disk. FileSystem Errors may be present on the disk even when os says its clean. Double check before running convert.exe tool. Better do chkdsk /p on the partition from recovery console.

Alok4best's reply is also a good suggestion, but it can be time consuming if data is in huge quantities.

[infra_red_dude]

If the data is important all this moving/copying is not worth it. There is NO substitute for backups.

[mastermunj]

it converts successfully all the time... but its always better to take backup of important files from that drive..

[alok4best]

yeah but it screwed the adjacent partition too once for me :D
Ek toh gaya hi saath mein saath wale partition ko bhi le gaya:(

ohh, hard luck :p:D