Safe to convert external hard drive to NTFS?

gnolan · 09-11-2011 01:45PM #1

Hi. I've got a 500GB hard drive formatted as FAT32. It's got 42GB free on it. I want to convert the drive to NTFS - so i don't want to lose any data on the drive. Is converting usually a low-risk procedure? Can i be fairly confident that i won't encounter any errors that will result in me losing my data?

Voodu Child · 09-11-2011 01:50PM

If the data is important enough that you are worried about losing it (hence this thread), then it should be backed up in the first place.

To answer your question, yes it is reasonably risk free.

gnolan · 09-11-2011 01:55PM

Voodu Child wrote: »

If the data is important enough that you are worried about losing it (hence this thread), then it should be backed up in the first place.

To answer your question, yes it is reasonably risk free.

I know what you mean. The problem is my laptop (my only other storage device) has a free capacity of about 50GB, and the data i have stored on the hard drive takes up around 400GB. This would mean purchasing another drive + enclosure if i wanted to backup.

But i take your point - if it's that important I should either backup or not attempt the conversion perhaps.

SickBoy · 09-11-2011 03:54PM

As already said it should be a simple process but backup the mission critical stufff first.
50gb on the laptop should be enough to backup the really important stuff in case the worst comes to the worst.

Safe to convert external hard drive to NTFS?

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