converting NTFS to FAT32 (WXP)

[hackingfan]

sir
i have converted all my partitions from FAT32 to NTFS but now i want to again convert my partitions to fat32 but that too without data loss .so please tell me a way to do that .i can even go for a third party utility .And if there is no way to do that please tell me that how can i make a NT bootable CD.

[BertImmenschuh]

You'll probably need PartitionMagic <a target="_blank" href=http://www.powerquest.com>www.powerquest.com</a>. Nothing in Windows will do it except to delete the partition [and everything in it/on the drive] and start over. As to a bootable NT CD, I don't recall that the install disk was ever bootable [I always had a small DOS partition to boot to before installing] and as far as I know, with the programs I've seen that will do it, you still need a bootable floppy in the drive when the CD is burned and NT required 3 or 4 floppies as I recall.

[hackingfan]

hello sir
i already have registered partition magic 7.0 but it is not able to convert the partitions to fat32 ,It gives the error message that "error 007" also says that contents on the drives are compressed but i haveno compressed drives.so tell me what should i do .tell me some other utility other than partition magic .

[BertImmenschuh]

Here is the error list PowerQuest has:
http://www.powerquest.com/support/ (http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id817.html>http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id817.html</a>,
might).

More here:
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id311.html>http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id311.html</a>.

There used to be a program called PartitionIt from Quarterdeck, but I haven't seen them around in some time.

[tony5]

there is a prog called Partition Commander that I recall will convert NTFS to FAT32.

[BertImmenschuh]

"i already have registered partition magic 7.0"

Go back to PowerQuest, there is a free update to 7.01, may help.

[Jama]

I started my copy of Partition Magic, looked in the help file and found this;

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If you receive an error message and the conversion stops, one or more of the following usually causes it:

The file system for conversion is not allowed for the current partition size. The FAT32 partition must be greater than 256 MB and the FAT partition must be less than 2 GB.

The Windows 2000/XP NTFS partition has compressed files, sparse files, reparse points, or encrypted files. In such cases, you can uncompress and/or move (or delete) the files or points, then repeat the conversion.

The NTFS partition has data in memory that has not yet been written to the hard disk.

The file system has errors, such as lost clusters and cross-linked files. You can fix these problems, then try the conversion again.

There is not enough temporary space in the partition to do the conversion. The conversion will require the NTFS system and the FAT32 system files until the last step of the conversion. Also, there is data in NTFS FRS's that must be moved to external clusters and saved.

If you can complete the conversion, you may receive a warning about the quality of data and feature loss, depending on the features used on the partition, the type of data, and the partition size.
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What’s sparse files, reparse points, cross-linked??

I think it’ll be easier faster and safer to delete and start again.
Put your copy of PM to work, shrink your current partition, create a FAT32 in the new space, copy any data you want to save to that partition and then reformat the first partition and reinstall.
When you finish installing, you can either merge the two partitions with partition magic “very slow” or copy your data back to partition 1, delete partition 2 and then expand partition 1 “much faster”.

Jama