AR_Alex Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 Hi, I took an A+ Certification test last week which I passed and ran through a question that told me to change a FAT 32 drive to NTFS without erasing files, but this sounds ridiculous to me because I'm almost 100% sure that there's no way to do this without formatting the drive. I tried backing up the files, formatting the drive to NTFS then restoring the files but I still got that question wrong. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBootlace Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 This has worked for me ...Important: While this method works perfectly, I would still advise you to backup your data in case anything goes wrong.FAT 32 to NTFS Conversion Steps1) Go to Computer, and note the name of the drive whose file system you wish to convert.2) Click on Start.3) Type cmd in the search bar if you use Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows Vista. If you use Windows XP, click on Run and then execute cmd.4) Execute "chkdsk h: /f " (without quotes) where H is the letter of the drive to undergo conversion. This checks the drive for errors and fixes them automatically.5) Execute "Convert H: /FS:NTFS" (without quotes). H is again the letter of the drive to be converted.6) The command prompt will start the conversion process and after a few minutes, CMD will say that conversion was successful.7) You can check it in the properties of the drive through right click<Properties.Convert FAT to NTFSThis works on Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows 8 and Windows Vista. It is interesting to note that this method cannot be used to reconvert NTFS file system back to FAT32. To reconvert back to FAT32, you will need to format the entire drive which will definitely cause data loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AR_Alex Posted November 2, 2015 Author Share Posted November 2, 2015 This has worked for me ...Important: While this method works perfectly, I would still advise you to backup your data in case anything goes wrong.FAT 32 to NTFS Conversion Steps1) Go to Computer, and note the name of the drive whose file system you wish to convert.2) Click on Start.3) Type cmd in the search bar if you use Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows Vista. If you use Windows XP, click on Run and then execute cmd.4) Execute "chkdsk h: /f " (without quotes) where H is the letter of the drive to undergo conversion. This checks the drive for errors and fixes them automatically.5) Execute "Convert H: /FS:NTFS" (without quotes). H is again the letter of the drive to be converted.6) The command prompt will start the conversion process and after a few minutes, CMD will say that conversion was successful.7) You can check it in the properties of the drive through right click<Properties.Convert FAT to NTFSThis works on Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows 8 and Windows Vista. It is interesting to note that this method cannot be used to reconvert NTFS file system back to FAT32. To reconvert back to FAT32, you will need to format the entire drive which will definitely cause data loss.Wow thanks, I never knew this was even possible but this is nice and useful to know, thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesbond Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 most partitioning tools can do this too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
straycat19 Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 Hard to believe that question would even be on the test since I probably haven't done this in the last 15 years. The A+ test always has been full of BS and not real world problems that techs encounter every day. When I took my test I drove 3 miles thru town to the test site took both parts of the test and drove back to work. The whole process took 20 minutes. It had junk on it like list the addresses for the 4 serial (com) ports and the address of the primary and secondary IDE ports, etc. It was really so useless that they no longer require techs to be certified. When I retired from my first job I had an interview with a Fortune 100 company in Boston that offered me a job simply because I didn't have any certifications. I turned it down because I don't like the cold and snow. The HR person told me they won't even interview anyone that has certifications because they want people who have done the work, not studied to take exams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shroeder Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 There's even a KB article for this : https://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881But what MS doesn't tell you, is that the end result partition will have a cluster size of 512 bytes, not the default optimal 4096 bytes.More info on this subject here : http://lila.godel.com/html/ntfsinfo.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rok Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 Convert H: /FS:NTFS Wow thanks, I never knew this was even possible but this is nice and useful to know, thanks again! Once upon a time, there was a thing called DOS. This is the beauty of the legacy OS of our time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x3r0 Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 Convert H: /FS:NTFS Wow thanks, I never knew this was even possible but this is nice and useful to know, thanks again!Once upon a time, there was a thing called DOS. This is the beauty of the legacy OS of our time.DOS is ugly, Bash is beautiful :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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