[GRLUG] fat32 to ntfs

[Michael Mol]

On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 4:59 PM, Benjamin Flanders <flanderb at gmail.com> wrote:
> Short question:
> How can I convert a large partition from fat32 to ntfs without loss of
> data?  Basically does changing cluster size reformat the partition?
>
> Googleing, I found that fat32 to ntfs is a simple "convert drive
> letter: /fs:ntfs" this can be done without lose of data.

Is this a Windows command?  I hadn't heard of it.

Otherwise, NTFS and FAT32 are fundamentally different; Your best bet
would be to attack a large external disk to the system, format it as
NTFS, and use cp -ra to copy the files from your FAT32 disk to your
NTFS disk.  Then reformat your FAT32 disk as NTFS, and use cp -ra to
copy the files back.

>
> I also found that the optimal cluster sizes of the two file systems
> are different.  I can't seem to find any information as to whether
> changing cluster sizes destroys the data in a partition or not.
>

Keyword: optimal.

It doesn't really matter unless you're dealing with millions of really
tiny files.  So unless you're in that situation, don't worry about it.

-- 
:wq