Converting From FAT32 to NTFS

alexz721 · Post by **alexz721** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:44 pm

So I know how to do it, but before I do, how likely is it that I'll lose any data? I have a 300 gig external that I neglected to convert before I filled it up with lots of shit.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:51 pm

Probably not, but run a scandisk of hd first before doing it.

snkcube · Post by **snkcube** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 3:18 am

You won't lose any data. I tried it out myself and nothing went wrong so far.

kevman · Post by **kevman** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 5:33 am

I've done it to more partitions that I can count, and have never had a problem.

It usually takes like 10 seconds, too. Makes you wonder...

AntoineWG · Post by **AntoineWG** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 8:46 am

If the filesystem is in good shape, the chances of losing data unrecoverably is slim. Run a full scandisk with surface scan on it beforehand, then convert it.

If you're wondering what happens during the process, it basically clears out contiguous space for the volume information, then converts the FAT over to the MFT format. The data structure on the disk is unchanged. The downside to converting volumes is you don't get most of the security attributes.

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 9:00 am

there are additional downsides:

1. The MFT is guaranteed fragmented, drastically impacting performance.
2. you are stuck with a default cluster size of 512 bytes, which isn't the best size unless you got a half trillion files(for a 300GB drive, thats close to 600 million clusters).
3. It can only convert FAT32 file systems, but that issue is moot here.

Its probably better to back up all the data on that drive, and format it as NTFS rather than converting from FAT32.

Im not even sure it would let you convert a partition that large.

casualsax3 · Post by **casualsax3** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 5:10 pm

funkyass wrote:Its probably better to back up all the data on that drive, and format it as NTFS rather than converting from FAT32.

This is by far the best route to take - if you have anything you don't want to lose I wouldn't fuck around.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 6:08 pm

funkyass wrote:there are additional downsides:

1. The MFT is guaranteed fragmented, drastically impacting performance.

Any safe method to defrag it without actually having to formatting it?

alexz721 · Post by **alexz721** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 6:57 pm

Well, I'm getting a new drive. I could dump everything to it and then run a full format to NTFS. Since I've never actually done this before, what's the command? (just to make sure I don't screw anything up)

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 7:20 pm

You can right click it and select format. NTFS will be default filesystem.

alexz721 · Post by **alexz721** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:22 am

Well uh, that's much more simple than I thought.

MisterJones · Post by **MisterJones** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 5:12 pm

For that size, it might be wise to partition it.

Tallgeese · Post by **Tallgeese** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 6:54 pm

Deathlike2 wrote:
funkyass wrote:there are additional downsides:

1. The MFT is guaranteed fragmented, drastically impacting performance.
Any safe method to defrag it without actually having to formatting it?

Diskeeper can defragment the MFT.

alexz721 · Post by **alexz721** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 8:04 pm

Apparently O&O and PerfectDisk 2000 can too.

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:27 pm

they can try, no guarantee of success.

alexz721 · Post by **alexz721** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 8:29 pm

Update: I now have 880 NTFS gigs of goodness. Well, 820. Stupid SI vs. binary specifications.