Converting External HD from FAT32 to NTFS help?

[kombat75]

Hello. I have a verbatim 1TB external harddrive that I've been using now for a few months and by default it was setup as FAT32, which seems ridiculous to me seeing as it's capable of such large file storage. The problem is my external hdd now having all ps3 games and I worry after convert the FAT32 to NTFS will all the games gone or can it be play ?

Anyways, I'm trying to move a 25gig file onto it, and I'm getting a "not enough disc space" error. I've read up that the best way to fix this issue is to convert the drive to NTFS. But I've already got a crap ton of files on the drive, and not enough room on my PC hard drive to back the files up while I convert it.

The problem is, I don't know if it'll delete my files or not. Some websites are saying the process DOESNT delete your existing files, and some are saying it does, so I've come here for a definite answer before I do anything. If anyone could help me find the most efficient way to change this over to NTFS without losing my files, it would be greatly appreciated. I hope this is an issue that there will be some answers for. Seems like a simple enough question.

[PS3GAMER20111]

No need to covert the HDD to NTFS.use PS3 file splitter to split files larger than 4gb it will split files into parts than you will be able to copy your 25gb file to FAT32 HDD

[pinkone]

You can use a program like acronis disk director to create a partition after the fat32 one with the free space from it then you can keep your games on the fat32 one and still have a NTFS partition for your big files.

[LiteSoul]

The process to convert FAT32 to NTFS Doesn't delete your existing files, if you use a professional tool to do it. I recommend you EASEUS Partition Master 9.0 Home Edition, it's the best.

On the other hand, if you convert it to NTFS, your PS3 won't be able to read it, so are you sure you wannna do it? Or split the drive in 2 partitions, 1 FAT32 and 1 NTFS.

[rageagainst1]

I would just do what LiteSoul said and split the drive into two partition (an NTFS partition and a FAT32 partition, I am currently doing this and I have had no problems). Just get EASEUS Partition Master 9.0 Home Edition, which LiteSoul mentioned above. Then just shrink the FAT32 partition and make a NTFS partition in the empty space that was created by shrinking the FAT32 partition.

By the way how much free space does your hard drive have?

[akfalcon]

Can the games now be played directly off of ntfs usb drive?

[daivyphuong]

no you can't play game on HDD ntfs

[Liongooder]

I totally agree with the answers above, but the best solution right now is to buy a new HDD, like WD my passport or Elements... etc.

[PSPSwampy]

1. Consider carefully your reason for wanting to do this...

- If you are expecting to be able to plug the NTFS drive into your PS3 and play large games/videos there is no point, the PS3 doesnt support the NTFS filesystem and you won't be able to acces any of your files. (*unless some dev has written a nice NTFS filesytem driver i've not seen yet!)

- If you simply need a drive for your PC to store large files on, then you shouldn't have any worries doing this.

2. If (having considered the above) you still want to proceed, there is a free, built in (command line) utility in windows XP and above that allows you to convert from FAT (16 or 32) to NTFS.... it is called "convert" (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881 for full details). Microsoft confirm on this page that it will retain all files, although as with any hard disk operation there is a small risk of corruption (you should always backup!)

Note: Converting from Fat32 to NTFS is a one way process. There *might* be third party tools to revert (unlikely), but i suspect you would actually need another drive to copy to, then reformat as fat32 and finally copy back!

Hope this helps.

PSPSwampy

p.s. To reformat to a Fat32 partition that is larger than 32gb, you won't be able to use the built in windows format tool. There are tools out there (i think western digital release one) to do allow you to do this.
The default format tool in Windows will only allow you to format to 32gb as Fat32, unless you format to ExFat which allow much larger partitions (but does not work with PS3)

[kombat75]

Thanx Guys from reply and give some advise on this method.. I will try PS3GAMER20111 step and download the software first and see.. coz i want to transfer some internal games that is more than 4gigs and when i install to external it cannot copy over..

Btw, PS3GAMER20111 did i have to download the file splitter and how should i use it.. Any guide or step by step to do it?

I want to transfer some internal games more than 4gigs to external...

Thanx