Two FAT32 Partitions to NTFS?

I have an Acer TravelMate 8200 with Windows XP. I got it a few months ago. It has a 100gig harddrive portioned into two 50gig FAT32 sections. My C:/ drive is my main drive with everything installed on it and my D:/ drive is just storage. I want to convert my D:/ drive to NTFS so I can handle files larger than 4 gigs.

I know I can convert my D:/ drive (storage) to NTFS using the command prompt utility. Will this cause problems with programs installed on my C:/ drive when they want to access files on the D:/ drive? And what about Acer's eRecovery? Will having one partition in FAT32 and one partition in NTFS cause any problems whatsoever?

 

nope, it wont create problem.

I had changed C and D into NTFS and now I changed C into FAT32 again. I did recovery and no problem whatsoever.

 

Okay, well I have the backup DVD that I made when I first got my computer... so that will DEFENTIALLY work if I convert both partitions to NTFS? So I mean like if my laptop takes a huge dump, I can pop the backup DVD in, and start with a factory fresh laptop?

And, is there any way to have one big NTFS partition without losing all my files?

 

Unfortunatelly ACER recovery only work with FAT32. SO i suggest you to keep your C as FAT32

 

Okay, that's what I was planning. I wanted to have some large files (above 4 gigs) on my D:/ drive. So there is absoltuely, seriously, positivly, no problem AT all with programs installed on C:/ (FAT32) accessing, using, and reading files on D:/ (NTFS)?

Oh yea, I have an extra copy of Windows XP Pro... if everything completely failed and my computer was totally done, could I just reinstall Windows XP fresh, and from there create a single NTFS partition?

 

the only limitation is the 2GB file sizes on FAT32....... that and the horribly insecure file format.

I made a full DVD-R backup on my 5672wlmi before I wiped the hdd and installed windows xp over it. Check my review and info here - http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,16348055

I would personally go download acronis 7 for FREE - http://www.acronis.com/mag/vnu-ati7 and do a complete hard drive table backup onto CD/DVD/IMAGE and wipe the drive after you have the backup stored in a safe and secure location. This will help save you the headache of restoring the partition to its original state.

NTFS is great and MUCH better than FAT32 in my opinion. Use NTFS for the perforance increase and security updates.

--ssx--

 

All I want to do is know if anyone has ever had one partition in NTFS and the other in FAT32 with no problems whatsoever. It would seem to me that it would have tons of problems with programs installed in one format trying to access files in another.

 

You will be OK, I did the exact same thing with my acer in sig.

Recovery CD & the Hidden Partition will change your C: drive back to FAT32, so you will always have to convert using the prompt afterwards. It will leave your all other Paritions alone/as is.

I coverted my C: drive which was installed using Acer recovery from FAT32 to NTFS. I play around with other partitions without any affect on C:

And yes, I also Shared files from NTFS & FAT32 without no problem. But I never tried to transfer a file that huge in size like 2gb.

 

samuderaindia up there says that the recovery CD will not work. You are saying that it will. Holy Jesus!

Anyways, if I convert both... and worse comes to worse, is it possible to fix everything back to factory without eRecovery, assuming that it won't work?

And... I would really like to have one big NTFS partition. How can I do this? My tools are: a copy of Windows XP pro, a eRecovery backup DVD, and that's it. How exactly, step by step, can I do this?

 

Is there another free recovery program that will do the same thing that Acer eRecovery will do... and work in NTFS?

Also, lets say I converted my current D:/ partition to NTFS.... can I delete it and then make a new FAT32 one if needed?

 

ok cookies.... did I not mention this previously in my post about Acronis? It's a backup restore utility.

--ssx--

 

It worked for me when I have my C: drive on win xp and my D: drive on Vista. Both on NTFS Partition. I STILL DO

It also worked when I had my C: drive on win xp and D: on Linux. C: drive was NTFS and D: drive was EXT3.

I never had a problem using my recovery DVD on NTFS. And I must have recovered hundreds of times being experimental

You can always Ghost your Partitions just incase. (VERY GOOD IDEA)

Also, I been able to also recover my c: drive my just selecting Acer Recovery Partition under Grub bootloader when I dual boot with linux. It's 100x faster than using a CD/DVD Recovery. And usefull incase you lose your Recovery CD/DVD.

DOWNLOAD G-PARTED TOO

 

I'll second Acronis True Image. It'll image your hard drive partitions so if something goes wrong you can restore the partitions to the exact same state when the partition was imaged. You can also assign drives to the imaged partition to restore individual files. I once lost my C (boot) drive at a conference, the computer was being used for all the presentations (about 75 presentations). The presentations were on my D drive but I couldn't get to them. I had used Acronis True Image on my C drive, imaged it to DVDs. Well of course True Image could not read the DVDs that it wrote but luckily being a little paranoid I also imaged to an external firewire hard drive. True Image was able to restore the C drive from the external hard drive and everone was able to give their presentations. That was with version 8 of True Image now they are on version 10 and I believe most of the bugs have been worked out. The Home edition is available for a 15 day trial. So if you goof you've got 15 days to restore it or pay for it, which is a good bargain.