FAT32 to NTFS

[jamie85]

Can you change a Windows partition to FAT32 from NTFS without wiping out everything on that partition??

I want to be able to write to my windows partition from Linux but i have read it is dangerous if the windows partition is NTFS.

 

[Big B]

Not that I'm aware of. Linux should see NTFS just fine, but make sure you're not using an older version of whatever distro you're using.

You might be able to do with some 3rd party software, like Partition Magic, but I'm not positive.

 

[Anti-Trend]

I don't know of how to convert NTFS to FAT32, as I've never wanted to do this myself. NTFS is a superior file system to FAT32, and with kernel patches (or kernel =< 2.6) you can write to an NTFS file system with no troubles. You just have to make sure that module is enabled in your kernel, and that you've got your NTFS drive mounted as R/W.

 

[iDRONEi]

Can you change a Windows partition to FAT32 from NTFS without wiping out everything on that partition??

I want to be able to write to my windows partition from Linux but i have read it is dangerous if the windows partition is NTFS.

PartitionMagic will work. But not as a copy. Create a larger partition than the NTFS because it may have smaller sectors. Then copy the dir to the new Fat32.

 

[Anti-Trend]

PartitionMagic will work. But not as a copy. Create a larger partition than the NTFS because it may have smaller sectors. Then copy the dir to the new Fat32.

Also, traditional FAT32 implementations are limited to 30GB, so if your partition is larger than that you will probably have problems.