Are you worried about losing data? You have a massive hard drive that you want to reduce down to a smaller size using File Allocation Table (FAT) 32. The problem is that you’re on Windows and do not want to risk formatting the disk. Normally in this case you would either pick up another hard drive or purchase a new one, but if you have your reasons for keeping it, in this article I will show you how to go from NTFS to FAT32 without formatting your hard drive.
If we talk about data storage, there are two different file systems we normally encounter in our daily life, those are NTFS and FAT32.
NTFS is the newer one between the two, it offers better security and provides you efficient data management. It also supports file permission management and can automatically repair files when damaged.
But that doesn’t mean that FAT32 has become useless now. Many storage devices like memory sticks, SD Cards, and Hard Drives still work on this system.
There are times when you have to change your NTFS device into a FAT32. Usually, changing an NTFS device into a FAT32 will require formatting your device. This is of course will result in a data loss.
Of course, you can avoid it by making a data backup beforehand. But, what if you don’t have any available storage space? Thus, we will show you how to change NTFS to FAT32 without formatting.
To do this method, you have to install first a software called AOMEI Partition Assistant. It is a tool dedicated to solving issues like changing disk formats. Once you have installed AOMEI Partition Assistant on your computer, open it and follow the steps below.
There may be other times when you need to change a FAT32 drive into an NTFS one. It might be because the FAT32 device is not supported by the operating system or it might be caused by something else.
The method we are going to use here is using the Command Prompt (CMD). Now, start with opening the CMD on your computer. You can open the CMD from the Start menu. Don’t forget to confirm when the system asks you to run it as administrator.
Both NTFS and FAT32 disk format are still widely used by computer users today. But, there will be situations where you have to use one between the two disk formats. This should not be a problem anymore because it is very possible to replace NTFS with FAT32 disk format and vice versa.