HDD Format types

[enthios]

I just noticed that my HDD format is FAT32. I don't know how that happened. I also just learned that apparently the only way to increase the size of a HDD, according to the sticky, is to use DISKPART which in turn only works with NTFS partitions.

I checked the FAQ but connot find where/how to partition a drive as NTFS. How can I change a drive format from FAT32 to NTFS? And do I need to save the data?

If I must save the data, I'm thinking to make a copy of the .HDD, then have Parallels use the two drives, then format one of those drives from FAT32 to NTFS, then copy the data from the FAT32 drive to the newly formatted NTFS drive. Would that work?

(If so, can I change the drive format type from within Windows XP?)

 

[kosh]

You can convert a FAT or FAT32 volume to NTFS from within Windows XP using the "convert" command from the command prompt. This is a one-way conversion but preserves the contents of the volume in the process.

convert <drive letter>: /fs:ntfs

This Microsoft Knowledge Base article has more info.

I haven't tried this personally from within a Parallels VM (have on numerous occasions from within XP running on various PCs) but expect that it should work.

PS - the beauty of Parallels is that you can save a copy of your .hdd file before conversion in case anything does go horribly wrong. Instant backup!

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Edited after posting: I didn't see your post with this question (and Peter's reply) in the "How I resized a Windows partition" thread until after posting the reply here. Basically, "What Peter said."

 

[doceddi]

convert successful (apparently, so far)

hey, thanks for this thread.

for reasons i won't go into, i had to convert my parallels C: drive with win2000
to NTFS

with the convert command, it was surprisingly
painless, and after 24 hours, still seems to be stable.