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[Tav]

Hi I was wondering if anyone could spare some advice on formatting my hard disk.

I recently aquired a laptop <1GHz 512mb RAM but only 15Gb hard disk> Currently it is using FAT32 but I would like to change to NTFS. Primarily because I have a 300Gb external HDD which is already in NTFS and so is my desk top computer. I presume that your external HDD would probably be better sharing the same file system/perhaps it has to? I am sure Pro Tools prefers NTFS as well...

Anyhoo down to buisness...how do I go about changing the file system? I right-clicked the drive icon in "My Computer", went to format then clicked the option NTFS from the drop down menu. It then says I will loose all data. This is where I decided to ask for some help. I don't have a windows XP disk so I really don't want to format the OS as well.

I wouldn't mind getting windows back to the orignal unmolested state however, as I still have some crap I can't seem to get rid of from the previous owner...is there any way to do this without the CD?

Any advice would be appriciated. Cheers!

[Keilan 303]

From a command (CMD) prompt you can type

CONVERT X: /FS:NTFS


where X: is the drive letter (C: I would suspect). You will not lose any data.

Was it formatted by Windows XP? If so, the drive shouldn't need realigned prior to the convert. If it was formatted in DOS (windows 9x boot disk).....post back, cos you will need a little tool to help realign the partition, else you end up with 512 byte clusters instead of 4kb, which means the performance will be somewhat degraded.

Good luck!

[Tav]

So where do I type CONVERT C:/FS:NTFS?

There is an option in the start menu to convert to NTFS put there by Toshiba. It doesn't run though as there is a missing DLL.

I'll try typing that in when you tell me where. I am not sure wether the drive was formatted by XP or DOS...is there any way of finding out. Also Keilan do you know how to restore XP to its "original state"

Cheers for the help though Mr Knight!

[Tav]

Found the CMD. Apprently it won't delete data going to NTFS. I am missing UFAT.dll apprently...so I can't use that cmd promt...eeek. Would I just be able to get someone to send me it then put it in the right folder?

[Keilan 303]

Hmmm thats a strange one!

Try downloading this file to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32

http://www.keilan303.demon.co.uk/ufat.dll

I presume the tool from Toshiba is just a batch script which carries out the above command. Should have mentioned, command prompt = START > RUN > type CMD and click OK.

As for restoring XP to its "orginal state"....not sure what you mean by that, but if you mean restoring the OEM build, your laptop should have came with a set of restore discs, which is basically an installed version of Windows which has been tweaked to how the manufacturer want you to have your machine, the hard drive is then cloned (or images/ghosted whatever you want to call it) and can then be cloned (or images/ghosted) on any other hard drive. A lot of manufacturers then script a conversion from FAT32 to NTFS after the reimaging has taken place (or some crappy vendors like IBM have tools which shift the entire partition and create an invisible 50mb partition before the system drive, which if you get bored and decide to switch off your machine half way through, you are totally screwed. I'm reminded of a time in a major oil corporation where I had to crudely rebuild an NTFS drive from a completely rafted partition table.....but I digress, I don't want to remember that!!!!)

If you've spent some time setting up stuff on your computer I wouldn't recommend rebuilding it. XP does contain a feature called "system restore" which allows you to roll back your machine to saved "states" (ie. how they were at a particular point in time, with regards to software installed/registry/settings etc) but I find this to be a really bad feature of XP which never works as expected, and is best avoided!! (in my experience)

I trust the above should work, let me know if it needs anymore DLL's. Are you on XP home or XP pro?

[Tav]

It's XP Home...friend of mine suggested I format and install his Pro. I have Pro on my Desktop...it would seem like a good idea perhaps?