A guide for converting an external hard disk from FAT32 file system to NTFS file system. This tutorial is for users who run Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista or 7
If you purchase an external USB hard drive with more than 250 Gigabytes of storage, you will soon discover that some have limitations when it comes to moving more than 4 GB of data from your computer or laptop hard disk to the external USB hard disk. This is because some external hard disk are formatted into FAT32 file system which means that you’re not going to be able to transfer files larger than 4 Gigabytes. This is the limitation for a FAT32 file system which was great in the days of Windows 98 but most of us now are running, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7. Of course some will have Mac or Linux. So, in order to over ride this issue you will have to convert it to NTFS. If you already have data copied into the external hard disk then you will have to convert it if not then simply formatted into NTFS.
A word of advice in the ideal world you would perform the above task with out any worries but since we are talking about computers and hard ware then I suggest that if you have data copied into the external USB hard disk then please do a back up first before you decide to convert the external USB hard disk. It is better to be safe than sorry. If you have more than a few gigs of files to backup go to my recommendation link and down load Easeus to create an image of your external USB hard disk. You might prefer to simply copy them over to your internal hard disk or partition; it is entirely up to you. I created an image because I had more than 30 Gigabytes of data in my external USB hard disk to back up.
Follow the instructions below:
- Run the command prompt as Administrator, if you are running Windows Vista or 7 click on start > Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator or simply click on start > run and type cmd for Windows XP
- At the command prompt, type the following C:\Users\name of user>convert f: /fs:ntfs /nosecurity
Where f: is the drive of your external hard disk. The /fs:ntfs is the switch that will convert a FAT32 file system into NTFS file system. The /nosecurity specifies that the converted files and directory security settings are accessible by everyone.
When prompted to “Enter the current volume label for drive F:“, if your drive has a label, you need to enter it e.g. Apollo or what ever you had. If you don’t have a label then don’t worry and simply press enter and it will leave it blank.
To find the volume label (if there is one specified), go to My Computer, right-click the drive you’re trying to convert in my case the drive is F:, select Properties. In the General tab, the volume label is the name in the first field.
If you can’t convert the external hard disk because of some type of error then simply while in command line type CHKDSK /F, this will fix any errors. If it doesn’t then you have to investigate further. It might also say that it can’t convert the external hard disk because some other program is using the drive. Simply close all windows that are connected to the external hard disk and that will fix this problem.
Good luck 