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Unformatting NTFS

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by tenbob, 2003/09/21.

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  1. 2003/09/21
    tenbob

    tenbob Inactive Thread Starter

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    I want to copy everything on a NTFS drive and reformat it to FAT32, then move things back.

    How can I format a drive in FAT that is now in NTFS
     
    tenbob,
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  2. 2003/09/21
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Hi tenbob!

    If it is a non system partition (other than C: with the OS), open Windows Explorer, right-click on the actual partition and choose "format ".

    In the dialog box You can choose filesystem NTFS or FAT32.

    Do NOT choose quick format.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  4. 2003/09/22
    tenbob

    tenbob Inactive Thread Starter

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    Sorry That's the easy way. Tried that. Only shows NTFS as a choice.
     
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  5. 2003/09/22
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    charlesvar,
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  6. 2003/09/22
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Strange!

    I have checked my own computer and one other. My own is formated to NTFS and the other to FAT32 and both present the choise of NTFS or FAT32.

    However, both have only one physical harddisk with partitions, no second physical harddisk.

    If You by "NTFS drive" mean a second physical harddisk it might be different but I wouldn´t know.

    Hope that You´ll sort it!

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  7. 2003/09/22
    tenbob

    tenbob Inactive Thread Starter

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    Yes -- same computer.

    New one. Came with Drive 1 already formatted NTFS and XP installed. The other drive was from a former computer that was NTFS and I want to make that second physical drive FAT 32
     
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  8. 2003/09/22
    BillyBob Lifetime Subscription

    BillyBob Inactive

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    I gotta jump in here with a more or less question and looking for info myself.

    From what I have read and understand from same is that once a drive has been formated to NTFS, it can not be changed back to 32bit with out deleting ( removing ) the partition with something like FDISK first.

    BillyBob
     
    Last edited: 2003/09/22
    BillyBob,
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  9. 2003/09/22
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I had an old LapTop given to me which had NT4 installed on NTFS. I didn´t want that but opted for Win98.

    I used a WinME start disk and ran FDISK which asked me if I wanted to remove the NON-DOS partitions. The answer was YES and next, I repartitioned and formated to FAT32.

    If You try FDISK and disk2 hasn´t got a label, I would name it THISISIT (which can be done in XP) not to make any mistakes ...... :eek: ...... and as I said earlier, I´ve never done this myself so I don´t know what to expect from two harddisks in FDISK.

    I would wait a bit longer to see if someone else chimes in but if not ...... this might be of some help:

    Doc's FDISK guide

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  10. 2003/09/22
    BillyBob Lifetime Subscription

    BillyBob Inactive

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    I have.

    And I can HONESTLY and TRUTHFULLY say. " It requires you to pay VERY STRICK attention to what you are doing. "

    Because once you hit the " Y " key on the keyboard and hit " ENTER " it is TOO LATE to change your mind.

    And saying " OOPS !! " ( or any others words of your choice ) does not help.

    That is why if I have two HDs and I only want to work with the 2nd it is the ONLY drive that FDISK sees. Wiping out Windows once was enough. :(

    BillyBob
     
    Last edited: 2003/09/22
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  11. 2003/09/22
    tenbob

    tenbob Inactive Thread Starter

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    That's the reason why I gave up considering FDISK many years ago. I think I can put it into another computer as the only drive and use Fdisk then. Can't do any harm then.

    As you said, there is no OOPS factor or option with FDisk
     
    tenbob,
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  12. 2003/09/22
    BillyBob Lifetime Subscription

    BillyBob Inactive

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    Not at all a bad idea.

    In fact a very good one. As long as you do not run into HD size limitations.

    BillyBob
     
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  13. 2003/09/22
    Newt

    Newt Inactive

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    Right-click My Computer then click manage~disk management. You should have the option to format any drive other than the system drive unless you are using the 2nd drive for page file or similar.

    You should be given a choice of file storage and can select FAT32.

    Safety precaution here in that you cannot blow away your system disk even if you should happen to try.
     
    Newt,
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  14. 2003/09/22
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    BB,

    "From what I have read and understand from same is that once a drive has been formated to NTFS, it can not be changed back to 32bit with out deleting ( removing ) the partition with something like FDISK first. "

    Yes, you can.

    From the thread I linked to:

    "IF" XP is on its own drive or partition, go to a cmd prompt and type:

    Convert X:/FS:NTFS

    X= drive letter "

    Response:

    "Thank you I am now Running on NTFS "

    Regards - Charles
     
    Last edited: 2003/09/22
    charlesvar,
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  15. 2003/09/22
    tenbob

    tenbob Inactive Thread Starter

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    That's fine for converting TO NTFS but how about the reverse. That is FROM NTFS to FAT32
     
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  16. 2003/09/22
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    My appologies, I was too fast. I know that the reverse can be done using the format that I gave. When I find it, I'll post it.

    Regards - Charles
     
    Last edited: 2003/09/22
    charlesvar,
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  17. 2003/09/22
    tenbob

    tenbob Inactive Thread Starter

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    My attempt to use Convert m:/fs:fat32 yielded

    "Convert does not work on NTFS drives "
     
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  18. 2003/09/22
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Hi tenbob,

    I can't find the thread. Maybe I was hallucinating :)

    I do know that it can be done with Partition Magic, and I know that it doesn't do you any good right now.

    Anyway I'm going to keep looking when I get a chance. I gave that command to someone else on another forum.

    Regards - Charles
     
    Last edited: 2003/09/22
    charlesvar,
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  19. 2003/09/22
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    tenbob,
    You didn´t react to Newts suggestion so I echo it:

    Right-click on My Computer and choose Manage > Disk Management.

    Here I get a graphic representation of my Disk0 with three partitions.

    (I get the same for my CD-R/RW and DVD but that´s not interesting.)

    What do You see here?

    You should see Disk1 as well.

    There is an option to remove Logical Drives and the option to format is different from the one in Windows Explorer.

    Check it out!

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  20. 2003/09/22
    Newt

    Newt Inactive

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    Charles - AFAIK there is no native option with any of the NT systems to change from NTFS to FAT32 while keeping all your data. The "convert" thing is one way and strictly FAT32 to NTFS.
     
    Newt,
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  21. 2003/09/23
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I went Google on the issue of not being able to format to FAT32 in WinXP and it seems like tenbob isn´t alone. There have been discussions on other boards too but I haven´t found a solution.

    The question in my mind is why some people only have the option to format to NTFS?

    For a short time, I had WinXP on my LapTop. It has a 3 GB harddisk partitioned 2.25 GB / 0.75 GB.
    On the 2.25 GB partition I had the options to format NTFS or FAT32.
    On the 0.75 GB partition I had the options to format NTFS, FAT32 or FAT.

    tenbob,
    do You have the option to format to FAT32 on the first disk?

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #20
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