Vista Tutorial - Convert external hard drive to NTFS

I have a Western Digital external hard drive formated in the FAT32 filing
system. I want to convert it to the NTFS system so that I can back up my
entire C drive which is running Vista. What is the procedure? WD support
refers me only to the XP procedure.
--
Ken E

Hi, Ken.

Unless there's something on the drive that you want to keep, don't bother to
"convert" it. Just use Vista's Disk Management to format it NTFS. This
will wipe out everything on the drive, so it's not the way to go if this is
a drive that you've been using where you have something valuable. If
there's only a small amount of data there, you might want to copy it or back
it up first, then format the drive and then move the saved data back onto
it. This may or may not be quicker and easier than using the Convert.exe
command.

The full details for using the Convert.exe command are in Help and Support.
Just click Start | Help and Support, then type "convert" into the Search
box. The 3rd item there is "Convert a hard disk or partition to NTFS
format". The short version: If that drive is Drive X:, just Run:
convert X: /fcntfs

It's that easy - and it's quick. ;<)

The convert procedure is the same in Vista as in WinXP. I'm disappointed
that WD tech support did not know that.

If you have questions after reading the Help file, please post back.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)

"Ken" <Ken@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:EF54918F-288A-4277-A97F-E3E9E5755357@microsoft.com...
>I have a Western Digital external hard drive formated in the FAT32 filing
> system. I want to convert it to the NTFS system so that I can back up my
> entire C drive which is running Vista. What is the procedure? WD support
> refers me only to the XP procedure.
> --
> Ken E

Whoops!

TYPO Alert!

That's an "S" - Plus a colon - not a "C" in this line:

convert X: /fs:ntfs

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)

"R. C. White" <rc@grandecom.net> wrote in message
news:A8B8D6E9-C48F-445A-8027-52682D00F686@microsoft.com...
> Hi, Ken.
>
> Unless there's something on the drive that you want to keep, don't bother
> to "convert" it. Just use Vista's Disk Management to format it NTFS.
> This will wipe out everything on the drive, so it's not the way to go if
> this is a drive that you've been using where you have something valuable.
> If there's only a small amount of data there, you might want to copy it or
> back it up first, then format the drive and then move the saved data back
> onto it. This may or may not be quicker and easier than using the
> Convert.exe command.
>
> The full details for using the Convert.exe command are in Help and
> Support. Just click Start | Help and Support, then type "convert" into the
> Search box. The 3rd item there is "Convert a hard disk or partition to
> NTFS format". The short version: If that drive is Drive X:, just Run:
> convert X: /fcntfs
>
> It's that easy - and it's quick. ;<)
>
> The convert procedure is the same in Vista as in WinXP. I'm disappointed
> that WD tech support did not know that.
>
> If you have questions after reading the Help file, please post back.
>
> RC
>
> "Ken" <Ken@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:EF54918F-288A-4277-A97F-E3E9E5755357@microsoft.com...
>>I have a Western Digital external hard drive formated in the FAT32 filing
>> system. I want to convert it to the NTFS system so that I can back up my
>> entire C drive which is running Vista. What is the procedure? WD
>> support
>> refers me only to the XP procedure.
>> --
>> Ken E

Ken wrote:
> I have a Western Digital external hard drive formated in the FAT32 filing
> system. I want to convert it to the NTFS system so that I can back up my
> entire C drive which is running Vista. What is the procedure? WD support
> refers me only to the XP procedure.


You can safely convert your current hard drive to NTFS whenever
desired, without having to format the partition and reinstall
everything. As always when performing any serious changes, back up any
important data before proceeding, just in case. A little advance
preparation is also strongly recommended, so you can avoid any
performance hits caused by the default cluster size:

Converting FAT32 to NTFS in Windows
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm



--

Bruce Chambers

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