Complete non-destructive conversion of NTFS to FAT with PM 8.0

With the release of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, many friends chose the NTFS format when installing the operating system, or the original FAT32 file after the installation is completed by the convert command. The system is converted to NTFS, but unfortunately, it is easy for God to send the gods. The convert command does not support the inverse conversion of NTFS→FAT. In addition to reinstalling the system, PartionMagic can only be selected to accomplish this task in most cases.

However, since PartionMagic does not really provide the Simplified Chinese version, the downloads are all available on the Internet. Therefore, if you convert NTFS partitions in the Windows environment of the Chinese environment, you must first change the Chinese file name or The folder name is changed to the English name, otherwise it will be displayed as garbled characters after the conversion. Although it can be manually restored, the operation is quite troublesome.

First, the excellent function of PPMP

In fact, we can use PPMP (Paragon Partition Manager Professional) in Paragon Partition Manager to achieve NTFS→FAT lossless conversion, although PPMP also does not provide simplification Chinese version (can be downloaded from the Internet), but users can freely choose the language code page, which achieves excellent support for the Simplified Chinese environment. The shared version of Paragon Partition Manager can be downloaded from http://www.paragon-gmbh.com/. The latest version number is 6.01.333. This is a disk partitioning package similar to PQ Partition Magic. The main functions are:

1. Non-destructive adjustment of the capacity of the hard disk partition, support dynamic volume operation.
2. Lossless conversion file system, support the conversion between FAT, FAT32, NTFS.
3. Partition, format, delete partition, copy partition, move partition and other operations on the hard disk, and even achieve a cloned whole disk copy.

During the conversion and adjustment process, even if there is an unexpected situation of power failure or crash, data corruption will not occur. It is recommended to back up important data before operation. The only regret is that PPM does not provide partition consolidation, but we can first delete the partitions that need to be merged, and then perform the creation operation, so that the curve achieves the purpose of the merge.

Second, the realization of NTFS → FAT lossless conversion

In the PPMP to achieve NTFS → FAT conversion, in fact, does not require any complicated operations and setup steps. As shown in Figure 1, this is the PPMP user interface, we can follow the steps below to convert:

PPMP user interface

Step 1: Time zone and language settings

First, we need to set the correct time zone and language language code page here, open the "Settings→Locale Info" window from the "General" menu, as shown in Figure 2, "time (time zone)" and "Filenames (file Name)" Set according to the legend, so you can support Simplified Chinese when converting NTFS→FAT.

The above steps are critical. If not set, the Chinese file name will be displayed as garbled after the conversion operation ends.

Time Zone and Language Settings
Step 2: Select Source Partitions

Observe the different tags under the "System" column and select the NTFS partition to be converted. If you need to convert multiple partitions at the same time, hold down the Ctrl key to check and complete it again. Otherwise, the partition will be lost after the conversion, that is, there will be only one C drive.

Step 3: Convert Settings

From the right-click menu, find the "Convert" command in the "Modify" submenu, or select the corresponding command from the "Partition" menu. The dialog box shown in Figure 3 pops up. Of course, the option is to convert to NTFS. As for the number of sectors per cluster, you don't need to set it. You can take the default value and click the "OK" button.

Conversion Settings

The program will pop up the dialog box shown in Figure 4 to ask if you want to perform this operation. If you select "Yes", the system will restart automatically, and then it will display similar to self-test. The blue screen starts to convert, we can see the percentage, the remaining time, press any key after the conversion is completed to enter the system, but if the converted source partition is the system partition, then you need to restart the system again.

Do you really do this

Step 4: Install the missing partition

It should be noted that if you have multiple NTFS format partitions you need to convert to FAT format , but not completed at one time, for example, first convert the C partition, and then convert the other partitions, then all partitions except the C partition will be lost after the conversion, of course, the original data is not really lost, as long as the right button in PPMP Click on the desired partition and select "Create" from the shortcut menu to create the partition. Be careful not to check the "Format new partition" checkbox and then execute the "Mount" command to install the missing partition.

It should be said that PPMP to complete the conversion of NTFS→FAT is not only very fast, but also has no change in the file name and file of Simplified Chinese, nor does it affect the normal use of the original software. If you need to make a PPMP DOS floppy disk, then manually copy the 936.cpi file in the NLS directory of the installation folder to a floppy disk. This is the Simplified Chinese language code page file.

Appendix: Different File Systems

Microsoft uses a total of five different file systems in the DOS/Windows series of operating systems: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5.0, 3.0 The previous version of DOS only supports FAT12, and supports up to 8MB of files. However, the hard disk at that time was a high price, so there is nothing wrong with this limitation; 3.0 and later versions of DOS and Windows 3.X/95 support FAT16. Supports 2GB files; starting from Windows 95 OSR2, the operating system continues to support FAT16 while adding support for FAT32. The FAT32 file system breaks the 2GB file limit and can create files with a maximum capacity of 4GB. Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003 can support FAT16/FAT32/NTFS/NTFS5.0 at the same time. NTFS file system can create a maximum file capacity of 64GB, while NTFS5.0 can create a maximum file capacity of 2TB. As for Windows NT only supports FAT16/NTFS.