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General discussion

External Hard Drive - Reformatting from FAT32 to NTFS

Jan 1, 2007 11:57PM PST

Hello,
I just bought an external hard and plan to reformat it to NTFS. I have a PC with Windows 2000 and a laptop with XP Pro that I will use it with. I will also take it over to a friend's house to transfer some music from his collection. I believe that his external hard drive is formatted to FAT32. Might be an ignorant question, but will I be able to take files off of his FAT32 formatted external hard drive and transfer them to my NTFS formatted drive? In addition, if he has data stored on his Windows ME pc that I want, I am assuming that I cannot take it since my drive is NTFS? Is that correct?
Thanks in advance for any help.

Discussion is locked

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Files are files.
Jan 2, 2007 12:32AM PST

But more to the point, for USB file system support your Windows 2000 works fine with FAT32 and NTFS.

Windows ME will only support FAT32 (and the other FATs).

Bob

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Re:
Jan 2, 2007 12:36AM PST

Ok, I understand. So no issue with getting the files from his FAT external drive but I won't be able to plug into his ME pc, right?

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I think you meant to ask...
Jan 2, 2007 12:59AM PST

Can I plug my NTFS drive into Windows ME?

Sure, but it won't be recognised. For that direction of transfer use some FAT32 volume. PLEASE EJECT SAID DRIVES PROPER since FAT32 drives are well known to corrupt or vanish if we lose power or pull the plug.

bob

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Exactly
Jan 2, 2007 1:03AM PST

What I meant! Thanks Bob.

Josh