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General discussion

converting Fat32 to NTFS 512 issue question

Feb 16, 2007 6:31AM PST

I have a drive I want to convert from Fat32 to NTFS. I can find directions all over the web but some sites have a comment like the following;
Keep in mind if you use the convert utility to change from FAT32 to NTFS, you'll wind up with 512 byte clusters, even though you probably had 4K clusters initially with FAT32. You'll need to align your FAT32 partition to FAT32 4K-Aligned before you convert.

How do I know if I need to do this?

thanks
Lee

Discussion is locked

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Good question and...
Feb 16, 2007 6:39AM PST

Something I've never done in over 10 years of NT use.

"TECH" hasn't either.

Can you supply a link to who wrote that?

Bob

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Where I saw it
Feb 16, 2007 8:07AM PST
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Aha!
Feb 16, 2007 8:50AM PST

"There are a couple of things to do in advance if the conversion is to be efficient. If you do not take these preliminary steps, you are liable to end up with only 512 byte clusters, which is not a good idea."

That's a debatable assumption. In a system with lots of large files, you would want the bigger clusters. In a system with lots of small files the 512 byte clusters are better.

Here's my thought. I've never bothered with this. I convert and use the result without any problems.

Bob

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(NT) Me neither, never had a problem.
Feb 16, 2007 10:11PM PST