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Computer Q&A Board  /  Questions  /  Using the NTFS drive
Posted by: hdb, April 27th, 2008, 5:36pm
Hi, I have a Sony Vaio desktop computer, somewhat older, purchased in 2001. 1.5ghz. 512 RAM. It has a FAT32 (C drive, 16G ) and a NTFS (D drive 40G. ) When given the option I install on the NTFS (D drive) as it has more memory. I once read that the NTFS was superior quality and reliabilty and that you should convert what was on the FAT32 over to the NTFS. Is this true? If so how do I go about doing it? Also if I coverted would that mean that everything that was on C ( FAT32)would now be on D (NTFS) or does it simply mean that the file system on C is now the NTFS with still the 16G memory? Hope you have my answers and thanks for your time on this.
Posted by: Ray, April 27th, 2008, 11:19pm; Reply: 1
   There are certain advantages to NTFS over FAT32.  One advantage is that it accomodates larger drives and files.
   The advantage of FAT32 is that it can be accessed from MSDOS whereas NTFS cannot.
   You can convert C to NTFS.  The end result would be that instead of it saying that C is FAT32, it wiould say that it is NTFS.  You probably will not notice any other change than that.
   Here is a website that tells how to convert the drive to NTFS - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881.

  Please note that there is a risk that you will lose all of the data on C when you do this so you should back it up before converting.

   Here are the steps outlined on the above mentioned website.

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
2. At the command prompt, type the following, where drive letter is the drive that you want to convert:
convert drive letter: /fs:ntfs
For example, type the following command to convert drive E to NTFS:
convert e: /fs:ntfs
Note If the operating system is on the drive that you are converting, you will be prompted to schedule the task when you restart the computer because the conversion cannot be completed while the operating system is running. When you are prompted, click YES.
3. When you receive the following message at the command prompt, type the volume label of the drive that you are converting, and then press ENTER:
The type of the file system is FAT.
Enter the current volume label for drive drive letter
4. When the conversion to NTFS is complete, you receive the following message at the command prompt:
Conversion complete
5. Quit the command prompt.
Posted by: hdb, April 28th, 2008, 6:06pm; Reply: 2
Thank you Ray! Very informative answer
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