NTFS Partition Formatting

HMOverclockerHMOverclocker The Hong Kong SAR, China
edited April 2004 in Hardware
Hello there,

I am thinking of turning the existing partition from FAT32 to NTFS but I am worried about the way how the NTFS partition is formatted if I need to re-install the OS in FAT32 someday. What tools should I use? Can I do FDisk to re-partition the harddisk? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Comments

  • oudiophileoudiophile Right behind you.
    edited March 2004
    HMOverclocker wrote:
    Hello there,

    I am thinking of turning the existing partition from FAT32 to NTFS but I am worried about the way how the NTFS partition is formatted if I need to re-install the OS in FAT32 someday. What tools should I use? Can I do FDisk to re-partition the harddisk? Any help is greatly appreciated.

    I would use your Windows CD, it has built in format tools when you boot off of it

    Don't worry, there are no wierd consequences for switching to NTFS. Just better performance. :thumbsup:
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited March 2004
    Ummm if I understand your question. You have a pc with stuff installed on it an your running some form of NT either 2k or XP. But it's installed on a FAT32 partition that you want to switch to NTFS without loosing any data.

    From the dos prompt the command is convert c: /FS:NTFS then you reboot and it converts it from Fat32 to NTFS no loss of data.

    Fdisk can only create a fat32 table it can delete an NTFS partition but it can't make one and isn't even part of the 2k OS anymore.

    Windows 98 won't run on an NTFS partition.

    So if you want to dual boot between 2k and 98 then you need to make 2 partitions on your drive. In which case use fdisk to wipe the drive and make the 2 partitions. Then install 98 first on the first partition (Fat32). Then install 2k or XP on the 2nd partion (NTFS) and it'll creat it's own dual boot menu for you.
  • HMOverclockerHMOverclocker The Hong Kong SAR, China
    edited March 2004
    Thank you for the replies.

    The scenario is that:
    I have a PC with Windows XP installed in FAT32 partition. I then convert the partition from FAT32 to NTFS. I later want to get rid of Windows XP and to install Windows 98. What should I do?
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited March 2004
    Ok first why would you want to get rid of XP and go back to windows 98...It's ummm just INSANE!!!!!

    But if you must here are 4 options....

    First fdisk the drive and turn it all back into one big FAT32 drive. Then reinstall everything from scratch.

    2nd fdisk the drive make 2 partitions put xp on one with NTFS and windows 98 on the other with FAT32, again installing everything from scratch.

    3rd use partition magic and split the drive leaving your NTFS partition as is but then adding a second partion fdisk the 2nd partition as fat32 and install win98.

    4th option just leave it all as 1 big fat32 partition and install win98 and xp on the same partition...this is however not a recomended way of doing it by any ones books. But it will work though can cause issues.
  • HMOverclockerHMOverclocker The Hong Kong SAR, China
    edited March 2004
    Thank you Kryyst. Actually I just want to see if FDisk can do the job in terms of turning the partition back from NTFS to FAT32. Is that FDisk the one from any Start Up Disk like Windows 98?
  • oudiophileoudiophile Right behind you.
    edited March 2004
    HMOverclocker wrote:
    Thank you Kryyst. Actually I just want to see if FDisk can do the job in terms of turning the partition back from NTFS to FAT32. Is that FDisk the one from any Start Up Disk like Windows 98?

    Yeah, I think so. I never liked FDisk, so little options. The Windows XP CD Has excellent fromatting tools, regardless of the OS you want to install. And thanks for that DOS Prompt Command, Kryyst, I never knew that! :loco:
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited March 2004
    Yeah FDISK will go from NTFS as it'll recog it as a large partition and then you can delete it. Then just put the FAT32 partition back on. It should be on any of the normal win98 boot floppies and on the CD's also in dostools
  • HMOverclockerHMOverclocker The Hong Kong SAR, China
    edited March 2004
    Kryyst, the last thing I wish to make sure is that you mentioned that "From the DOS prompt the command is convert C: /FS:NTFS ...........". Is that DOS prompt the one within Windows XP or the one after booting the PC with a Start Up Disk?
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited March 2004
    Boot into your system in XP then open up a dos prompt. Put in the 'convert c: /FS:NTFS' command. It'll tell you something about not being able to get a lock on the drive and that it'll do it the next time you reboot. So reboot and just past the windows screen it'll kick in and start the drive conversion. It takes aprox 15-30 mins depending on speed/size and when it's done your c drive will now be NTFS. I've done this about 15 times now since for some reason a majority of dell and compaq laptops come installed with XP on FAT32 and I've never had any error's or data loss.
  • HMOverclockerHMOverclocker The Hong Kong SAR, China
    edited March 2004
    Thank you very much. I'll give it a try.
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    let us know whats the outcome
  • HMOverclockerHMOverclocker The Hong Kong SAR, China
    edited April 2004
    GnomeWizardd wrote:
    let us know whats the outcome
    Okay.
  • HMOverclockerHMOverclocker The Hong Kong SAR, China
    edited April 2004
    GnomeWizardd wrote:
    let us know whats the outcome
    Okay, I successfully converted the file system in both the Primary DOS Partition and the Logical Drive of the Extended DOS Partition from FAT32 to NTFS with the command “Convert [Drive]: /FS:NTFS”. After the change, I could easily delete the Primary NTFS Partition with FDisk but I couldn’t delete the NTFS Logical Drive because it seemed to be invisible under FDisk. I could only delete the Logical Drive with FDisk after it was converted from NTFS to FAT32 with the software “Partition Magic 8.0”.

    It is also worth to mention that the “Ghost 2003” works between the partitions in FAT32 and NTFS. You can create a ghost image with a NTFS partition and restore it in a FAT32 partition and vice versa.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited April 2004
    That's because there really is no such thing as an extended NTFS partition, I'm actually surprised it allowed that. Anyway the normal way is you would just have 2 normal NTFS partitions on a drive. It's the poor FAT table that creates extended drives which is just a waste of time and proves yet again how out dated DOS is.
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