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Chapter 5: Converting Partitions72
apply the operations, a prompt appears asking if you want to apply the changes now before
converting your FAT file. Click OK to apply the changes and continue with the
conversion.
If you have any open files, a message appears indicating that the convert utility cannot
gain exclusive access to the drive and asks if you want to perform the conversion
immediately. If you type Y, your computer is shut down, and the conversion is done at
reboot time.
Converting FAT32 Partitions to FAT
To complete this conversion, the partition must have ~800 MB of unused space because of
how the FAT file system allocates disk space for file storage. The partition must have
approximately 1.7 GB of data or less because FAT partitions are limited to 2 GB. If the
command is dimmed in the dialog, you must delete some data to enable the conversion.
If the FAT menu option is dimmed, your FAT32 partition contains over 2 GB of data. If
the partition size is over 2 GB but it contains less than 2 GB of data, you can convert the
partition (without data loss), but the new partition will be 2047 MB.
During the conversion, PartitionMagic may report too many root directory entries (the
maximum number of entries in a FAT partition’s root directory is limited, unlike a FAT32
partition’s root directory). In this case, move or copy some of the files in the root directory
to another location and then start the conversion again.
Converting FAT32 Partitions to NTFS
This conversion is only possible under Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
The Convert FAT32 to NTFS operation launches the Microsoft Convert utility to convert
a FAT32 partition to NTFS. You must be running Windows 2000/XP to complete this
conversion.
Be aware that data in an NTFS partition will not be accessible if you boot DOS, Windows
9x, or Windows Me.
The steps for this process are listed on page 70.
After clicking OK, if you have no operations pending and if Windows 2000/XP can lock
the partition (no open files), the FAT32 partition is converted. If you have operations
pending, you must apply them first before converting from FAT32 to NTFS. If you do not