Extensa 5420 - Should I Change Format From EISA To NTFS?

In an Extensa 5420 the hard drive was formatted as EISA instead of NTFS. Is there a way to change it to NTFS without destroying what is on the drive? It is running okay, is there a disadvantage leaving it as EISA?

 

Never heard of EISA file system(it's not even in the list ) but normally you cannot switch file system without format.


Edit: EISA is not a file system. It's a special partition normally hidden. In ACER's case this is PQSERVICE - ACER's hidden partition for recovery to factory default settings.

 

I've never heard of it too. And atthegates is right, you can't switch a file system without a format.

 

Basically that partition is in EISA configuration. It is normally created by OEMs as a Restore Partition or for Special utilities, since this config allows the utilities or files on that partition to be accessed through the BIOS or through a special boot choice.

OP: You can boot GParted and see if it detects the partition.

BUT, I wouldn't even touch anything unless you have an OS Media (for Repair purposes), in case the boot.ini gets screwed up.

 

Thank you everyone for the replies. What is odd is that after making the Restore CDs I changed the drive in January, and did a factory restore to it. I nuked all the bloatware and trialware and got the system running real slick (Vista Home Premium). A few months later when I looked in Disk Management I noticed the EISA configuration label and, here's the odd part, further it says the entire drive is free. But when I look in My Computer it clearly shows 22Gb is used. I'll try to include a picture of Disk Management overlayed with a picture of My Computer.

Like I said, the system is running well so I'm wondering if I should go through the trouble of formatting the drive and reinstalling all the apps. to make it a "normal" ntfs drive.

 

This is really weird. It seems that after the "recovery" something got wrong and the your whole drive is detected like EISA with no file system(at least no FS detected). Have you partitioned/formatted your driver BEFORE the recovery?

I'd repartition, format THEN perform the recovery.

 

Something else that is weird ... if I open My Computer, r-click on the drive and choose Properties, the file system says NTFS.
I'm leaning towards leaving well enough alone as the system is running really slick for Vista.

 

Its just a configuration. Leave it the way it is.