Section 9.1: Converting a Hard Drive to NTFS

1. Click on the start button

2. Click on RUN

3. In the RUN dialog box, type cmd

4. Click OK

The command promp appears

5. At the COMMAND PROMPT, type convert <drive letter> /fs:ntfs and press ENTER

In this example we will be converting the F drive. Therefore we have typed:

convert f: /fs:ntfs

Note: The Convert command-line utility does not support converting drives to FAT or FAT32. Therefore there is no /fs:fat or /fs:fat32 command-line switches and we cannot convert a drive back to the FAT or FAT32 file system. To return the drive to the FAT of FAT32 file system we would have to format the drive. This would result in the data on the drive being erased.

6. If the drive has a volume label, Windows XP Professional will ask you to enter it. Once you have entered the volume label, press enter

Windows XP Professional converts the drive to the NTFS file system while keeping the integrity of the data on the drive in tact.