Convert FAT32 filesystem to NTFS

As I was working on my grandfather's old Gateway, running XP Home (no service packs o.o, yeah its that old), he was running a FAT32 filesystem. After cloning his current install from a 20GB HD to a 160GB HD, I had to convert the system from FAT32 to NTFS to expand the partition to the entire drive.

I knew there was a way to do it, because I had done it before, just forgot how over time. Figured that other people could use this knowledge as well. Ack, it couldn't hurt, right?

To do this, just type this in a command prompt.

 Convert C: /FS:NTFS

"C" being the drive you wish to convert. Make sure there is a space between the C: and the foward slash (/). Once you press enter it will ask you for confirmation and press Y. Then press Y and enter once more to reboot. That's it.

Pretty simple. Just figured it was something to have 'on record' so to speak.

#490817

important to note: once you've converted to ntfs, you cannot go back to fat-anything. not too big of a deal nowadays, as linux and mac can read ntfs without any problems. just worth noting.

#490822

I do know that software is needed to be able to write to NTFS for Mac OS X. In Linux, software is also needed (NTFS-3G), but most, if not all current distros include the software on installation.

#490824