Once you convert a drive or partition to NTFS,
you cannot simply convert it back to FAT or FAT32.
You will need to reformat the drive or partition which
will erase all data, including programs and personal files,
on the partition. Third-party programs, such as
Partition Magic 8, have the so-called ability to
convert a NTFS partition back to FAT32. However,
there is no absolute guarantee the conversion process
will not ultimately result in file corruption or worse,
an unbootable drive.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User


"Willard" wrote:

> Is it possible to convert WinXP (NTFS) to WinXP (FAT32) so that MSDOS7.1
> programs can access the fat32 files??

Carey Frisch [MVP] wrote:

> Once you convert a drive or partition to NTFS,
> you cannot simply convert it back to FAT or FAT32.
> You will need to reformat the drive or partition which
> will erase all data, including programs and personal files,
> on the partition. Third-party programs, such as
> Partition Magic 8, have the so-called ability to
> convert a NTFS partition back to FAT32. However,
> there is no absolute guarantee the conversion process
> will not ultimately result in file corruption or worse,
> an unbootable drive.
>

I agree and I would definitely never trust such a process on a system
partition with the possible exception as an experiment on a
non-production machine. I'm not even sure I'd trust partition resizing
on a production machine's system drive.

A second drive formatted FAT32 would be a much better solution.

Steve N.

> "Willard" wrote:
>
>> Is it possible to convert WinXP (NTFS) to WinXP (FAT32) so that MSDOS7.1
>> programs can access the fat32 files??


"Carey Frisch [MVP]" <mrxp2004@nospamyahoo.com> wrote in message
news:33420472-3587-48B0-9A5E-EEAF804ECEB3@microsoft.com...
> Once you convert a drive or partition to NTFS,
> you cannot simply convert it back to FAT or FAT32.
> You will need to reformat the drive or partition which
> will erase all data, including programs and personal files,
> on the partition. Third-party programs, such as
> Partition Magic 8, have the so-called ability to
> convert a NTFS partition back to FAT32. However,
> there is no absolute guarantee the conversion process
> will not ultimately result in file corruption or worse,
> an unbootable drive.
>
> --
> Carey Frisch
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows XP - Shell/User


Carey:
Setting aside the desirability of converting an XP NTFS file system to a
FAT32 file system based on the OP's need, let me just relate our (limited)
experience with this conversion process.

Using Partition Magic 8, we've performed about a half-dozen of these
conversions, one or two of which was for our own experimentation purposes.
All the systems that were converted (going on about two years or so now)
are, to the best of our knowledge, functioning without problems.

In those "substantive" conversion cases, the need for conversion arose in a
strange way. The customers' (about three as I recall) systems were using a
custom-made program specifically designed for their businesses. The program
had been designed in pre-XP days and had (has) never been upgraded, the
developer having been long gone. When they upgraded their systems from Win98
to XP, all sorts of problems arose in a way that made their program
dysfunctional. Since the program in question basically met their needs, they
desired to retain the program if at all possible.

Through sheer accident, we traced the problems to the NTFS file system.
Following the conversion process to FAT32, the problems disappeared. To this
day (AFAIK) we're unable to determine the precise cause of the problems
relating to this or that aspect of the NTFS file system.

This is not to say, of course, that a user should, for trivial purposes,
convert his or her NTFS file system to FAT32. But if the user has good &
sufficient reasons for wanting to do so, based on our (admittedly, limited)
experience, it's worth a try. With the understanding, of course, that this
is not a trivial process by any means and there is a real possibility for
data corruption with the user winding up with a dysfunctional system. So
it's vital that the user make a backup of his or her important/critical
files before undertaking this process, or better still, create a cloned copy
of the drive for safety's sake.
Anna

Anna, I am not 100% sure but I think I recall reading of at least one DOS
Database program that used it's own file locking system because DOS couldn't
do it with the FAT format. IIRC they experienced problems when running with
NTFS volumes for this reason. Perhaps you were seeing something like that?
From what I recall it sounded like their locking system prevented NTFS locks
and or vice versa resulting in files that couldn't later be unlocked.

Again I am not sure I read this right, it was quite some time ago, but it
does sound feasible.

Charlie


> Carey:
> Setting aside the desirability of converting an XP NTFS file system to a
> FAT32 file system based on the OP's need, let me just relate our (limited)
> experience with this conversion process.
>
> Using Partition Magic 8, we've performed about a half-dozen of these
> conversions, one or two of which was for our own experimentation purposes.
> All the systems that were converted (going on about two years or so now)
> are, to the best of our knowledge, functioning without problems.
>
> In those "substantive" conversion cases, the need for conversion arose in
> a strange way. The customers' (about three as I recall) systems were using
> a custom-made program specifically designed for their businesses. The
> program had been designed in pre-XP days and had (has) never been
> upgraded, the developer having been long gone. When they upgraded their
> systems from Win98 to XP, all sorts of problems arose in a way that made
> their program dysfunctional. Since the program in question basically met
> their needs, they desired to retain the program if at all possible.
>
> Through sheer accident, we traced the problems to the NTFS file system.
> Following the conversion process to FAT32, the problems disappeared. To
> this day (AFAIK) we're unable to determine the precise cause of the
> problems relating to this or that aspect of the NTFS file system.
>
> This is not to say, of course, that a user should, for trivial purposes,
> convert his or her NTFS file system to FAT32. But if the user has good &
> sufficient reasons for wanting to do so, based on our (admittedly,
> limited) experience, it's worth a try. With the understanding, of course,
> that this is not a trivial process by any means and there is a real
> possibility for data corruption with the user winding up with a
> dysfunctional system. So it's vital that the user make a backup of his or
> her important/critical files before undertaking this process, or better
> still, create a cloned copy of the drive for safety's sake.
> Anna
>

>
>
>> Carey:
>> Setting aside the desirability of converting an XP NTFS file system to a
>> FAT32 file system based on the OP's need, let me just relate our
>> (limited) experience with this conversion process.
>>
>> Using Partition Magic 8, we've performed about a half-dozen of these
>> conversions, one or two of which was for our own experimentation
>> purposes. All the systems that were converted (going on about two years
>> or so now) are, to the best of our knowledge, functioning without
>> problems.
>>
>> In those "substantive" conversion cases, the need for conversion arose in
>> a strange way. The customers' (about three as I recall) systems were
>> using a custom-made program specifically designed for their businesses.
>> The program had been designed in pre-XP days and had (has) never been
>> upgraded, the developer having been long gone. When they upgraded their
>> systems from Win98 to XP, all sorts of problems arose in a way that made
>> their program dysfunctional. Since the program in question basically met
>> their needs, they desired to retain the program if at all possible.
>>
>> Through sheer accident, we traced the problems to the NTFS file system.
>> Following the conversion process to FAT32, the problems disappeared. To
>> this day (AFAIK) we're unable to determine the precise cause of the
>> problems relating to this or that aspect of the NTFS file system.
>>
>> This is not to say, of course, that a user should, for trivial purposes,
>> convert his or her NTFS file system to FAT32. But if the user has good &
>> sufficient reasons for wanting to do so, based on our (admittedly,
>> limited) experience, it's worth a try. With the understanding, of course,
>> that this is not a trivial process by any means and there is a real
>> possibility for data corruption with the user winding up with a
>> dysfunctional system. So it's vital that the user make a backup of his or
>> her important/critical files before undertaking this process, or better
>> still, create a cloned copy of the drive for safety's sake.
>> Anna


"Charlie Tame" <charlie@tames.net> wrote in message
news:OzjqfTPDGHA.1384@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Anna, I am not 100% sure but I think I recall reading of at least one DOS
> Database program that used it's own file locking system because DOS
> couldn't do it with the FAT format. IIRC they experienced problems when
> running with NTFS volumes for this reason. Perhaps you were seeing
> something like that? From what I recall it sounded like their locking
> system prevented NTFS locks and or vice versa resulting in files that
> couldn't later be unlocked.
>
> Again I am not sure I read this right, it was quite some time ago, but it
> does sound feasible.
>
> Charlie


Charlie:
You may very well be right and that might have been the root cause of their
problems. I really don't know. I only know that when we converted the OS
back to FAT32 the programs immediately became functional without any of
their former problems.
Anna