deuces wild Posted May 4, 2007 Report Share Posted May 4, 2007 One of the external HD's I use as my primary backup is Fat32. My primary drive is NTFS.1. Is there a compatibility issue with restoring my backup files from external to primary drives or will changing the external to NTFS improve it's efficiency?2. If so, how do I change the external drive to NTFS?3. By doing so, will I have to delete all the backup files presently stored on the external drive and reload the data once the change is made to NTFS?Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted May 5, 2007 Report Share Posted May 5, 2007 There is no incompatibility between FAT and NTFS; backups and restores from one file system to another should not be a problem.NTFS is more safe than FAT. FAT partitions sometimes lose file segments. I have only some very old partitions that I rarely use still as FAT. Partitions that I use actively are all NTFS.To convert a FAT partition or HD to NTFS see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881; note that this process is irreversible. (There are tools that can convert both ways, e.g. PartitionMagic). You do not need to delete anything before the conversion process, but see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/156560 for free space requirements. It is also recommended that you run CHKDSK and defragment before the conversion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted May 5, 2007 Report Share Posted May 5, 2007 Here is an article that is more straightforward than the two KB articles abovehttp://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechn...convertfat.mspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted May 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2007 Thank you Pat. I will give it a go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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