Sorry if this has been discussed somewhere else. i currently formatted my HD for fat32 for the windows partition and i am running out of room. Can i change to NTFS without re-installing windows? I'm guessing no, but i thought i'd check anyway.
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Can u change from Fat32 to NTFS...
- Thread starter amtctt
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Almost out of space on that partition. i think i have 4gb left and if want to throw another game on there i'm pretty much out of luck.
The convert command is used from the command prompt to convert a volume from FAT32 to NTFS. However, I am unsure how much free space it requires in order to do the conversion, and you wouldn't gain any more space by doing so.
Standby a day or two...
Edit: Forgot to say I am working on a solution that you can try. I plan on testing it again tomorrow then posting the results.
Drop into command prompt (in XP) and type in the following without the quotes:
"convert c: /fs:ntfs" ... note that the C: can be substituted for what ever drive letter that your partition is which you want converted to NTFS.
It will take a good amount of time to do the conversion so dont power off and dont interrupt it.
"convert c: /fs:ntfs" ... note that the C: can be substituted for what ever drive letter that your partition is which you want converted to NTFS.
It will take a good amount of time to do the conversion so dont power off and dont interrupt it.
Nice tip.
However, to the OP, stay with FAT32 so you can copy and write files to the partition.
What I will give you is a step by step way of backing up your current Windows partition, erasing the partition, creating a new partition the size that you want (I assume a little bigger), then restore your Windows installation.
There are quite a few steps involved, but it seems to work. I want to try it one more time before I post the steps.
Of course you can convert FAT32 to NTFS, but that will negate being able to make the back up like you can with FAT32.
Sorry, but you should convert to NTFS so you don't have to deal with FAT32's 4GB limit for reading and writing. Downloading the NTFS-3G linux driver linked below will let you write to NTFS. Problem solved
http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/
So passing by that obstacle, I would like to convert FAT32 to NTFS and Terminal isn't following the convert drive_number: /fs:ntfs command that command prompt would, and I do not have Windows installed. Is there another command I should be using?
You can easily do the initial conversion as contoursvt mentioned to get it to NTFS first.
Then download the free Mac utility called WinClone, and:
• Use it to make a disk image clone of your newly converted NTFS Windows partition
• Use the Boot Camp Assistant app to restore your drive to a single OSX partition.
• Rerun the Boot Camp Assistant to set up a new partition the size you want it to be now.
• Restore your Windows installation in the new larger partition with the restore function in WinClone.
BTW- this only works with NTFS. Making a WinClone image and restoring it to a larger FAT32 partition will shrink the partition to the size it was when the image was created due to some Windows limitations (addressed in the WinClone FAQs).
After reading about that procedure on the WinClone site I recently tried it and I can only say it worked without a hitch for me!
BTW- A slightly expanded version of exactly what contoursvt said above about converting to NTFS can be seen in this quote from the WinClone FAQs:
Then download the free Mac utility called WinClone, and:
• Use it to make a disk image clone of your newly converted NTFS Windows partition
• Use the Boot Camp Assistant app to restore your drive to a single OSX partition.
• Rerun the Boot Camp Assistant to set up a new partition the size you want it to be now.
• Restore your Windows installation in the new larger partition with the restore function in WinClone.
BTW- this only works with NTFS. Making a WinClone image and restoring it to a larger FAT32 partition will shrink the partition to the size it was when the image was created due to some Windows limitations (addressed in the WinClone FAQs).
After reading about that procedure on the WinClone site I recently tried it and I can only say it worked without a hitch for me!
BTW- A slightly expanded version of exactly what contoursvt said above about converting to NTFS can be seen in this quote from the WinClone FAQs:
one last problem:
Thanks, sickmacdoc, but there's one problem on my end, anyway-
I do not have windows installed- I'm not using Boot Camp. I would like to convert an external HDD I have from fat32 to NTFS, but "convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs" is not a terminal command. Is there a corresponding terminal command I can use to get the same result?
Thanks, sickmacdoc, but there's one problem on my end, anyway-
I do not have windows installed- I'm not using Boot Camp. I would like to convert an external HDD I have from fat32 to NTFS, but "convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs" is not a terminal command. Is there a corresponding terminal command I can use to get the same result?
Yeah, that certainly does put a kink in your scenario anyway.
Well if you are intending to use the NTFS with Mac OSX you are going to have to use either MacFUSE/NTFS-3G or Paragon to write to it, the commercial solution (Paragon) may offer the answer. I was just looking at its features list to see what it had to say about that and noticed that it can format a partition directly as NTFS in Mac OSX when it is installed- which would then bypass the need for the conversion of FAT32 to NTFS-Just for curiosity is there a reason you need to use an NTFS partition with Mac without installing Windows?
Whatever the case, it looks like Paragon could take care of your dilemma.