Convert FAT or FAT32 Volume to NTFS

hotrodbob1976 · 31 Dec 2009

Brink said:

It depends on your USB flash drive. Some have a switch to turn it off and on, some are software protected, and others have a special parition on it.

Mine has no switch. It appears to have no software since I did format it using FAT32. How would I access the special partition, if it has one?

Brink · 31 Dec 2009

Since you formated as FAT32, I would think that you could just format it again with NTFS selected instead?

Convert FAT or FAT32 Volume to NTFS-computer.jpg

hotrodbob1976 · 02 Jan 2010

I have tried everything it seems and am still unable to get it converted or formatted to NTFS. It looks like it is formatting, but when it reaches 100% I get an error stating windows was unable to complete the format properly. I have gone to the USB properties and enabled write caching under policies and still no luck. I have tried formatting from CMD Prompt, right clicking, and from within disk management and all have failed. Mind you FAT32 format works fine and the disk is accessible when formatted with such. Any other suggestions? Thanks. Here is another screen shot.

Brink · 02 Jan 2010

Bob,

Give this a try to see if it may be able to work for you

Open a elevated command prompt
type diskpart and press enter
type list disk and press enter
type select disk # (substitute # for the listed # of the USB key) and press enter
type clean and press enter

Then follow steps 2 to 11 in METHOD TWO of the tutorial below to format and create a new NTFS partition on the USB key drive.

Partition or Volume - Create New

hotrodbob1976 · 02 Jan 2010

Brink said:

It depends on your USB flash drive. Some have a switch to turn it off and on, some are software protected, and others have a special parition on it.

Ok I found no way around the issue. I have ensured all write protect is disabled (although I found nothing on my device to indicate it was write protected). I have tried formatting from right click, disk management, & CMD Prompt, and all has failed. Now here is the other option I found, and that is exFAT. That is available by simply selecting Better Performance under Properties\Policies tab. That removes the 4GB file size limit which most of us with a 32GB USB Stick don't want. So that option does the trick for that. I think there is quite a few people out there with devices that simply will not convert or format to NTFS. So exFAT is your only option to remove the 4GB file size restriction. Hope this info helps someone with the same issues as I have had. Thanks.

Brink · 02 Jan 2010

Thank you Bob for posting back with your results. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted. :)

Jonuskong · 15 Jan 2010

I did exactly what the tutorial said on my 1TB External Hard drive, and it has been converted to NTFS as i have checked on its properties. However I got a message saying 'cyclic redundancy check error' after it had converted it. What does this mean? Sorry I don't have a screen shot, its says the error after it says 'converting file system' on the command prompt.

Brink · 15 Jan 2010

Hello Jonus, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You can read more details about the error at the link below.

Data Error Cyclic Redundancy Check-Top Bits

However, this usually indicates data corruption on the drive. You might see if running chkdsk may be able to fix it.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Jonuskong · 16 Jan 2010

Thanks for welcoming me :)

I've done a error check on my external hard drive and it says that there are no errors....which surprised me since it said i had an error before....everything seems to be working on it fine as well. I dont know what else to do about it now....maybe I'll find some data on it that is corrupted in the future, since their is rather allot of data on my disk.

Thanks for the Help

Brink · 16 Jan 2010

Well, hopefully you will not find any missing or currupted data on it later.