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General discussion

Converting Fat32 to NTFS

Feb 13, 2004 4:04PM PST

I have a brand new Laptop, which came preinstalled with Windows XP .. on FAT32.

I have tried to convert to NTFS, using the command:

convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

the result is disaster.

Now I would like to know, can I format the HD with NTFS, then using the OEM Recovery/restore CD, to install factory software?

Or is it better if I do a clean install using Retail Windows XP pro? ---(I think I can get most of the drivers from the recovery CD).

Or is there another sure and better way of doing it?

Thank You

Discussion is locked

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Re:Converting Fat32 to NTFS
Feb 13, 2004 8:10PM PST

I haven't bought an OEM system since the Pentium days -- I prefer not to be gouged on the price and to have a real choice in the brands of the parts that go into my system, not just the quantity, so I get all my systems custom built now -- but even back then they were pretty much completely scripted. You pop the CD in, it does it's thing, you reboot the system. If there was any choice at all, it was a "Are you ready to begin" sort of choice.

Using a retail CD would allow you to do what you want, and the only other option I can think of is using Partition Magic or friends. Of course there's no guarentee it won't completely hose your filesystem like before.

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Re:Converting Fat32 to NTFS
Feb 13, 2004 8:11PM PST

My questions to you are:

1) What disaster occurred when you tried to convert?
2) What does your laptops maker say about the conversion?
3) Who is the maker of the machine?

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Re:Re:Converting Fat32 to NTFS
Feb 15, 2004 6:54AM PST

After you clean the hard drive, and ready the reinstallation of XP, ( you can activate the BIOS to have the cd drive as first boot device), you will go through the boot up screens and license agreement, to the formatting of the drive, and the options it will give you, either FAT 32 or NTFS. You can choose which manner to format the drive and complete the installation from that point.