Win98 FAT16 to FAT32

[marlboro]

I need to convert a 4GB HDD from FAT16 to FAT32.

The current FAT16 format has the drive partitioned into two logical 2GB drives. The data needs to be preserved so fdisk is not an option.

I wouldn't bother if it was my PC but the user is a novice.

Anyone know of a decent reliable utility to do this??

Only need this once so a free tool would be preferred.

[TheExcession]

You could try Partition Magic - it tends to do most of that type of stuff very reliably

[JamieBeeston]

iirc there was a command called convert.exe

tho it might have been for Fat to NTFS....

i am sure windows 98 came with the option to convert.
as does 2k

[puggit]

Windows 98 - those were the days

Here's the answer www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jeacocke/fat16to.htm Try option 3 - the freebie MS tool

(hint, try Google )

[tjmurphy]

I'm pretty sure FAT32 to NTFS is the only conversion you can do with the "free" software that comes with Windows.

I've used Partition Magic and it worked fine. I'm not sure how you get the data from one partition to the other though - you may have to move chunks to free up some space / then increase the partition a bit / repeat until finished.

If the data is important, make sure you take a back up first!

[annodomini2]

win98se should have a built in tool to do it, but you'll need partition magic to turn it into a 4gb partition.

Personally, i would backup my data, try partition magic, if it works then great, if not you've still got your data to do it from scratch.