I have windows XP on my laptop which is new. The hard drive is split it two.?

Question

One is C and the other is D. but they are the same drive. They are both NAT32. I want to convert them to one NTFS drive but dont know how. Please help?

Answer 1

You can't convert the two of them to one drive without the help of another utility (such as Partition Magic) but you CAN convert them to NTFS.

Click start, click run, type in command, press enter.

now type in the black box:

convert d: /fs:ntfs

You can also do the same for your C: but change the d: to c: in that line I had you type.

Though personally, I would recommend keeping the D: drive backup as it's VERY useful should your windows fail. Keep all your important files on the second drive.

Answer 2

Depending on the size of the drive you may not see any change in performance or space by switching the format, also keep in mind that the partitions are preset by the manufacturer so the d drive is probably pretty small in size and has the recovery portion of the operating system preinstalled.....if you reformat the drive you will lose this function. the laptop should have come with a recovery disc, or recovery software installed, if not....do not partition the drive unless you have a full version of XP to reinstall....if it did then you can go ahaead and use that disc to reinstall and reformat the drive....if it is just software installed there should be an option to create a recovery disc....do this before proceeding with the reformat as the drivers and operating system files are within that application. If your hard drive is less than 30GBs then theres really no point in refomatting unless you have to. There are several software tools out there that will reformat the drive, just keep in mind that unless you save all your info ouytside of the hard drive (external hd or discs) it'll all be gone. Check with your laptops manufacture website to see if they have the software specifically for your model, or go to the hard drive manufacture website for the software (i.e. www.maxtor.com). If you cannot find the info or you want more functions in formatting and a slew ofother tools then check these out
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,122487-page,1/article.html
and
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307654

Answer 3

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.

Download the BOOTITNG.ZIP file to its own folder, extract the contents of the ZIP file, then run BOOTITNG.EXE, which will make a bootable floppy. Boot this floppy. For purposes of Partition Management, there is no need to install the program to hard disk, so click Cancel Install, thus entering Maintenance. Click Partition Work. Highlight the partition you intend to convert. Click Slide, which has an option check box to Align for NTFS only. Click OK. As it has to move almost every sector on the entire partition, this will take a very long time — schedule it for a meal break, or start it to run overnight. (If it finishes quickly, that probably means that the partition was properly aligned already.)

Then restart the computer, boot Windows XP, being sure to logon as an Administrator, and defragment the disk. This ensures that there is, as far as possible, a contiguous area for the NTFS Master File Table. It is best if there is a fairly substantial amount of free space while you do it.

Now use the Windows XP convert tool: Go to Start | All Programs | Accessories | Command Prompt (or, from a Run box, type CMD) and, assuming you intend to convert C:, give the command:

VOL C:

Note the name of the disk in the first line, and the Volume Serial Number (for example, 3F4E-2D1B) in the second. Then type:

CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS

It will ask for that name in confirmation. Then it will ask two further questions. Reply Y each time to set up conversion to happen at the next boot, then restart the machine. (If you are converting a partition other than the operating system’s partition, you may find that it runs without rebooting.) After returning to Win XP, the hard disk will work for two or three minutes, tidying up. Leave things alone during this time.

Answer 4

The D: partition on a laptop is where the computer stores all the information if you put it into hibernate mode. By all means change the C: drive to NTFS with the Windows Disk utility but don't mess with the D: drive.

Answer 5

The convert command allow the conversion of FAT32 to NTFS, an example would be
CONVERT D:/FS:NTFS?v the /v would include listed information about the space required to complete the operation as well as a list of files and folder on the conversion drive.

Answer 6

they are called partitions. It is common these days to split a hard drive in two partitions; one for system files and one for your data.

Sadly, windows XP doesn't offer any tools to split/merge/convert partitions, you will have to look to an external program for that.

PartitionMagic is the one I have used for years, although that is commercial software. Partition Surprise ( http://surprise.sourceforge.net/ ) will do the same for free.

Note that this is not without danger (you could lose data) so unless you are comfortable with messing with partitions and have backed up all your important data I would not attempt it.

Answer 7

You will have re-install windows xp on your hard drive . during installation xp lets you format your hard drive thus you may choose which particular FAT32 or NTFS then ur in business that is assuming you do have windows xp CD

Answer 8

open up a command box by going to run.
type cmd

in the command box type convert c: /fs:ntfs

this will convert the file system to ntfs on the next reboot

Answer 9

More than likely the D:\ drive has your system recovery files on it and should not be touched.
( I actually renamed mine "DO NOT TOUCH")
In case of a disaster you'll need Drive D:\ to restore your computer to a like new state
You should have some Documentation that explains how to use drive D:\ in such a case

Answer 10

You'll probable need a program like Partition Magic. That's what I used.