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Space_Cowby · #1 22-02-09, 23:01

Recently bought a 1TB ext drive and have slowly moved everything, well almost to this drive.

I have a couple of 5g files which I can not move.

Turns out that the drive is in FAT32 format and i need it in NFTS format to store files of any size.

So is there anyway that i can change the format without losing all the data.

There are no partitions as yet and its connected to a vista machine.

Thanks

Tom · #2 23-02-09, 00:09

Can't you just move the files back to your other drive(s) until you format the new HD into NTFS?

I know it's a bummer, and a slow process, but if you leave it transferring over night it should be done by the time you get up.

Don't quote me on this- But I'm pretty sure the drive needs to be emptied before you can change it to NTFS and it needs to be re-formatted to do so.

Space_Cowby · #3 23-02-09, 08:02

There is about 300g on there already and it took days to get it there.

I will have a google later, thanks

phil-h · #4 23-02-09, 10:07

I have just over 2.4T of storage, I feel your pain lol

There are a number of utilities that claim to be able to change the filesystem from FAT to NTFS, I've tried many but trust none as the filesystem has to be able to oversee the entire hard drive as an empty landscape, so how can this be achieved by bunging a new filesystem on if the drive isn't empty? Just not a reliable way to do things, but if you can afford to lose your data, then go for it.

To do it properly:
Copy all the data back manually, then reformat the drive by right -clicking on it to get the reformat dialog box, then select format.

For Filesystem select NTFS.

DO NOT select Quick Format.

Leave it until it's finished doing it's thing.

Bear in mind that if you connect the drive to any pc running a FAT16/32 file system, your shiney new drive will not be seen as FAT 16/32 does not recognise the NTFS file system as it is not backwards-compatible.

hth

Space_Cowby · #5 23-02-09, 10:23

thank you.

I might leave as it is as there is a chance i will use drive on 2 other XP machines.

A google suggests i can use a convert cmd which will leave data in place and safe, anythoughts ?