Convert FAT32 to NTFS

FAT32 is the file system used with earlier versions of Windows such as Win98. However it is still occasionally found on contemporary systems in extra partitions and on external drives. FAT32 is not secure and only allows for limited partition sizes as well as a maximum of 4GB file size - big in the nineties, but way too low for today's usage needs (see NTFS Permissions for more information).

NTFS has many advantages over FAT32 including increased security, compression, auditing, encryption and larger partition sizes, to name a few. NTFS has a file size limitation of 16 exabytes (16 billion gigabytes) which won't reach its limit for a few years yet.

Windows 2000 onwards make it easy to convert..

Click START | RUN and type CMD

In the command prompt window, type CONVERT C:  /FS:NTFS

- where C:, D: or E:, etc. is the drive of choice. Windows will convert the FAT drive to NTFS and the process will be completed upon reboot. Easy.V

Note the process is not natively reversible (NTFS to FAT32), for security reasons..