Formatting the HDD from FAT32 to NTFS "Without Loosing" data


  1. juniorgeek
    Posts : 43
    Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit
       New #1

    Formatting the HDD from FAT32 to NTFS "Without Loosing" data


    Hey Friends,

    I Need to format my HDD from FAT32 to NTFS. i made a small mistake of not formatting the drive before adding the data to it... and now i cant put files larger than 4 GB. I have data more than what i can hold aside temporarily so i need a way to format the HDD with the data in it BUT "WITHOUT LOOSING" the data.

    Anyone having any suggestions is more than Welcome to share their Knwoledge.
    Thanks.

    I am afraid and scared!! because i had a very big problem once with my HDD that a very large number of my files were converted to .CHK files hidden in the HDD from which i recovered almost all the files except those which were more than most important to me (text files), i had gone through literally 30,000 files but still have about 10 or more thousand files (.CHK) which i have no idea what they are...
    Please Help.
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  3. juniorgeek
    Posts : 43
    Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit
    Thread Starter
       New #2

    Pauly said:
    I dont know thats even possible, do you not have another drive you can temp them on while you reformat

    My only suggestion and im not sure its a great one would be to partition the drive into two pieces put data in one half, reformat the other half, swap data over and merge partition back together as new ntfs drive

    Edit
    that would only be poss if drive was less than half full
    or split 3 ways if drive is less than 2/3 full

    Possible, hmm. but my drive is not that empty i have like only about 30 GB free out of 320 GB...
    btw, it is possible... Check Free Partition Magic alternative & free Partition Manager Software for Windows PC, Workstation and Server - EaseUS.
    i just need some guaranteed way, or someone who has done it before, so i know i wont loose the data.
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  4. Ztruker
    Posts : 6,285
    Windows 10 Pro X64
       New #3

    See here: Convert FAT or FAT32 Volume to NTFS
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  6. johnnya
    Posts : 352
    Windows Home Premium 64bit
       New #4

    I beleive the command is


    C:\> CONVERT C: /fs:ntfs

    RegardsJohnnyA oops, beat me to it Z.
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  7. juniorgeek
    Posts : 43
    Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit
    Thread Starter
       New #5

    Thanks Guys, great help.

    Though there is this one thing i dont understand -> when we ask how to convert without loosing data as we do not have another temp position to keep the data...... WHY do people then say..... backup your data to be sure! I mean if we had a place for backup why would we need to go through this long procedure?!?!?!?! we can just go to format disk!!

    Anyways, wish me luck, i'm trying this!

    btw, johnnya , i dont get what you meant by "RegardsJohnnyA oops, beat me to it Z."
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  8. gregrocker
    Posts : 50,642
       New #6

    You can upload your data to 7gb free storage with each Windows Live ID on https://skydrive.live.com/.

    Later after reformatting and moving your data back you can sync it to same storage and then to any other devices using the Skydrive explorer tool.
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  10. MilesAhead
    Posts : 5,092
    Windows 7 32 bit
       New #7

    For a long time now PCs have come with USB ports. You can get large external USB drives for reasonable money. It's the internal drives where they are doing the price gouging.
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  11. juniorgeek
    Posts : 43
    Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit
    Thread Starter
       New #8

    gregrocker said:
    You can upload your data to 7gb free storage with each Windows Live ID on https://skydrive.live.com/.

    Later after reformatting and moving your data back you can sync it to same storage and then to any other devices using the Skydrive explorer tool.

    Wow, Great idea!! thanks

    though, "I" might still have trouble as you might have seen i have a Three-Hundred GB of data here which i have to move - so.....
    well, It may work though, for my other stuff like the documents and stuff... Thanks again
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  12. Ztruker
    Posts : 6,285
    Windows 10 Pro X64
       New #9

    Online backup is very, very slows. 20GB or so could take you a week of 24/7 uploading. I know as I did this when I tried Carbonite for a year.

    You are much better off to buy an external hard drive and use it to backup to.
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  13. gregrocker
    Posts : 50,642
       New #10

    juniorgeek said:
    gregrocker said:
    You can upload your data to 7gb free storage with each Windows Live ID on https://skydrive.live.com/.

    Later after reformatting and moving your data back you can sync it to same storage and then to any other devices using the Skydrive explorer tool.

    Wow, Great idea!! thanks

    though, "I" might still have trouble as you might have seen i have a Three-Hundred GB of data here which i have to move - so.....
    well, It may work though, for my other stuff like the documents and stuff... Thanks again
    You need an external HD or another intnernal HD.
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