FAT32 to NTFS?

[NiceGuyEd]

Hello All.
Quick question here...

I have an old Athlon 600 system that has Windows 98se on it. There are 3 harddrives on the system - One 20GB drive for OS, and two 80GB drives that I use for data storage.

What I would like to do is format the 20GB drive and install Windows 2000 professional on it (obviously using NTFS), but I have data that I can't lose on the two 80GB storage drives that will still have a FAT32 filesystem.

Once Windows 2000 is installed on my 20GB OS drive, is there a way to convert the two 80GB storage drives from FAT32 to NTFS? Will my data be safe on those drives during the conversion? Will the system even see the two 80GB drives?

Thanks for any insight on this!
Ed

 

[Didou]

Search Feature is your friend.

• NTFS Conversion
• NTFS Converting
• A Question About NTFS

 

[Vigilante]

Yes, load up 2000 on the old drive as NTFS. No problem there. And once Windows is done, it will be able to read your 80gbs with no problems. You don't even HAVE to convert if you don't want to.

Here is the differences between FAT32 and NTFS (or FAT vs. NTFS): http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

If you decide to convert, you can with a built in tool, called, appropriately enough, "convert". Which I think IS in 2000 also. Read about it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/convertfat.mspx

But of course, with something like a file system convert, it's always a good idea to backup first if you can.

 

[Liquidlen]

If there is enough space on the 2 drives.
Back up drive A > B then convert A after a drive check
Back up B> A then convert B
Btw there is an important switch for the ' convert" program be sure and read instructions at Microsoft. ( I don't remember.

 

[NiceGuyEd]

Thanks for the replies fellas! I've got it up, converted and running with no problems.

I'll be sure to do a better search next time.

Ed