I followed the instructions so that I could reformat my new 250GB WD HD - I am trying to backip my files from my ACER Aspire 5100 Vista onto my external HD and I got an erro message that my HD was currupt. In other forums I learned that all you had to do was to reformat you drive from fat32 to NTFS and so I found this forum with the instructions but when I do it I get the message: "Access Denied as you do not have sufficient priviliges. You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode."

What do I do next? Prompt hel will be greatly appreciated!

Cindy

You need to right click on the "command prompt" option and select "Run as administrator - you will then be able to run the commands you need.

Hi Cindy - when starting up the Command Prompt window you'll have to do so with elevated privileges. Right click on the Command Prompt icon (or cmd.exe in your system32 folder) and choose "Run as Administrator". Then you can follow the remaining steps above.

Will doing this erase all the files on the drive I want to convert to NTFS? Or will everything stay the same?

RE: Mike

Short answer: NO.

You are converting your current file system to another so none of the data already on there will be touched.

Does this work both ways, as in xp I thought it was just fat 32 to ntfs, can you do the inverse and change ntfs to fat32?

Thanks for these tips, but I am still having trouble making this conversion work. I follow all of these steps. I am trying to back up a new toshiba laptop with a 400 gb WD external hard drive. After I type in "convert f: /fs:ntfs" into the command prompt, I get the following message: "The type of the file system is FAT32. Enter current volume label for drive F:" What does this mean and how and I continue to convert my drive to ntfs?

Just look at the drive in windows explorer. Right click on properties. click general and look at the name. i.e. My Passport or the name that shoes up for the dirve. enter that name on the command line.

I tried converting from FAT32 to NTFS under admin privelleges. But there was a problem, it said that my disk drive was dirty and I have to clear the dirty bit before I can convert. So I ran chkdsk. But it still doesnt allow me to convert.

Thanks to all for tips...I needed them all!

Successfully converted external drive from FAT32 to NTFS

I needed to go into Windows / System32 and right click on CMD and run as Administrator.

Again, to all for the above steps - thank you!

Hi and thanks for all of the points given so far. I found the following on another notice board talking about this same subject, the only difference being it was talking about Windows XP.

Is the same true for Vista or can I ignore these preliminary tasks?

"Converting a partition from FAT32 to NTFS can be done by an inbuilt utility in the Windows XP operating system — but it is important to realise that it is a one-way process. You cannot convert back, except possibly by use of Partition Magic 7.01, and that is not always successful. Windows XP has no tool for converting from NTFS to FAT32.

There are a couple of things to do in advance if the conversion is to be efficient. If you do not take these preliminary steps, you are liable to end up with only 512 byte clusters, which is not a good idea.

What happens is that FAT32 partitions formatted by most Windows versions except Windows XP itself (and possibly Windows 2000) have an odd multiple of 2 kilobytes in the “system” sectors before the data area, where the File Allocation Tables themselves and clustering start. Therefore, clusters 4 KB in size are not aligned on 4 KB boundaries, as NTFS will want. CONVERT.EXE, finding it cannot use 4K clusters, gives up and makes the clusters only 512 bytes (one half KB) instead. (For a table of the varying default cluster sizes used by FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS for partitions of varying sizes, click here.)

It is, therefore, important to realign the partition before conversion, by moving all the data area up to a 4K boundary. (This will absorb odd sectors at the far end which otherwise would not get used). For this, I suggest BootIT NG, from BootitNG.com. This is a shareware program, priced at US$30 but with a 30-day fully functional trial. You may well find it valuable also for its Disk Imaging and Partition Management capabilities."

Thankyou

I tried to convert FAT32 to NTFS and I got massage Determining disk space requried for file system conversion cannot relocate existing file system structures the conversion fail and was not convert NTFS

Thanks man...this helped me a lot and the instructions are clear and easy :D

Yes, I found same info with same instructions about how to convert FAT32 to NTFS, but does anybody know how to create partitions on external HD which have already been in use but still have 710 GB of available space? The partitioning can make different file systems coexist on the same HD and use both FAT32 and NTFS.

I tried all the methods stated above... it doesnt allow.. typed run as admin on these - C:windowssystem32> and C:usersowner> and even added CMD.exe to my external HD and still nothing..

why is that? plees hellp

Joe, go to your command prompt icon, right click then run as administrator.

also.. it was saying "run" is not recognized as internal and external command

I run Vista, my external hard drive is western digital my book, went through the whole process, even chkdsk, when i restart,, it says, "cannot determine file system of drive." several times and hours have passed, it seems hopeless.

Hey.. I'm getting the message: CONVERT is not available for RAW drives.
What do I do?

I think the RAW format means that it is a CD or DVD, and you cant convert that

I've tried following these steps to convert my WD external, and it says convert cannot run because the volume is in use; I don't have any other programs running, but I said yes to dismount, and it still doesn't work. When asked to convert upon start up, I said yes, but when i restarted, nothing happened. Any suggestions?

when i try to convert using that command line is says "access denied as you do not have sufficient privileges. You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode" which is starnge as im the only user of my computer , can anyone help me with this ?

Right click on the Command Prompt and choose "Run as Administrator" then follow the remaining steps to complete the conversion..

Hi I am trying to convert fat32 to ntfs on a wd essential I have done the cmd and run as adminisatrator the message says not recognised as internal or external command operable program or batch file. I have my HDD as I:/ , please help.

Im having the same problem as #17 Josh, any ideas would be great!!!

Thanks to all for tips...I needed them all! Very clear proceeding!!!!

Successfully converted external drive from FAT32 to NTFS

Thanks mate, very much appreciated!

Thanks Dude, this helped me alot, Great tutorial, easy to understand :)

I hate Vista so much, I've had nothing but problems from the start. Got that "Your drive is dirty please repair." Ran the chkdsk utility and everything seemed alright...

Long story short, Vista still won't let me format, surprise surprise...

i am trying to convert my WD 250Gb HD to ntfs....ive followed all the instructions ...even tried running as administrator...but failed..
as administrator it gives the following message:

c:windowssystem32: 'convert:' is not recognized as internal or external command, operable program or batch file. invalid drive specification.

please guys help me out with this thing...cant figure out wats wrong.

thanku guys....i figured out the problem...i was missing the drive letter in the command...:P

i have converted it to NTFS successfully..:)

I removed the user account restrictions in Vista, rebooted and then completed the coversion that way... try that... don't forget to reinstate your user account controls...

Just converted my WD 1TB MyBook to NTFS, something I'd been wanting to do for ages but hadn't found concise instructions for until now. Many thanks!

Thanks for the awesome guide, Marius! Just got my Samsung StoryStation 1TB converted to NTFS in a couple of minutes under Vista 64. Although i had hiccups like the 'dirty bit' issue at first, but got it sorted after i re-plugged it in and re-ran the chkdsk command. Then 'voila' it's done! Once again, awesome! :)

I made it all the way to converting.... then got the "insufficient memory" error.
Windows Vista, converting WD 2TB My Book