How to Convert FAT or FAT32 to NTFS ?

How to Convert FAT or FAT32 to NTFS ?

Before going to convert FAT32 to NTFS let us see what actually FAT or NTFS means.

FAT (file Allocation table)

• FAT is a file system used by mainly windows based operating systems. 
• It is a data structure which is created by windows while or when you format a specific volume using FAT or FAT 32(FAT32 is the derivative of file allocation table) filing systems. 
• FAT32 works great in windows XP,2000,2003and other old windows operating system. 
• FAT32 is good at handling small files and it can handle files up to the size of 4GB.

NTFS(New technology file sharing system)

• NTFS is an advanced file system which is used by most of the current windows operating system.
• NTFS can handle files more than 4GB.
• It provide performance,security,and advanced features that are not found in any version of FAT. For example, NTFS guarantees volume consistency by using standard recovery techniques. If a system fails, NTFS uses its previous logging information to restore the consistency of the file system.

Now i hope you are familiar with FAT and NTFS let us move further in converting FAT to NTFS. Usually most of the flash drives are preformatted by using FAT32.For example if we unrar any file which is more than 4GB into a flash drive which is preformatted with FAT32 ,we will notice "NOT ENOUGH DISK SPACE ERROR ", until then we don't bother to change it into NTFS. To overcome this type of problems Microsoft as added a command in command prompt i.e"convert" command.We can convert it without using any software by using the "convert" command.

STEPS:

1. Go to start button and open run.

2. In Run,type cmd. 

3. In that type "help convert" command.It gives you information about              converting FAT to NTFS.

4. In this i am using G as flash drive which is initially in fat32 format.

5. Before converting the flash drive into NTFS you can check for disk error by typing "chkdsk X: /f"(without quotes)where X represents the flash drive which you are going to convert

6. Before converting it is recommended that you back up the data. 

7. Now in order to convert it enter the following command 

convert G:/FS:NTFS 

here "g" represents my flash drive.you can find this command in the help convert command.After entering the command and press enter and wait for few sec or min.Then cmd show a message that conversion is successful.

8.You can check whether the conversion took place or not by going into the properties.

It works great in windows xp,windows 7,windows 8,windows vista.You can also convert any hard drive.

NOTE: 

• This method cannot convert NTFS to FAT(reverse process does not takes place).
• In order to convert back into FAT just format the drive.