if i change from fat32 to ntfs will i lose all programs on computer?

Answer 1

converting from fat32 to ntfs is just a case of going to command prompt option,,,start>programs>accesories>command prompt and type in the conversion command which is c: / fs:ntfs (where c is the drive letter)
when you have completed this command press enter and windows will commence with the conversion from fat32 to ntfs,but be warned,you cannot go back to fat32 from ntfs,you will need to format your drive and use such tool as fdisk to convert your drive back to fat32
when the conversion is complete windows will restart and your file system will be ntfs,all programs and documents will be there unchanged
what you will notice now is your p.c will be slightly faster and also ntfs is a more stable file system ,that is why all windows installations are done in ntfs by defualt,and also all new p.c,s you will find are ntfs,fat32 is just too old now and very unstable,but if you happen to still use windows 98 or me,fat 32 is the best system for these allthough millenium can use ntfs
good luck

Answer 2

I was at one point going to change from fat32 to ntfs but i was told that my restore disc wouldn't work any more so that's something to consider

Answer 3

I understand that windoze has an inbuilt facility which allows changing of the file system type on the fly. Personally I wouldn't trust it and would back up my entire disk before I made changes that were so radical. If you were to use Linux as your OS, you can have multiple file system types quite happily on the same computer.

Answer 4

You wont lose your programs but what you will change is the format your files are saved in. I have done this and my programs are still there but the way the files are stored is more efficient. Better use of the space available.