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After a quick search I found that through a command prompt I can convert a drive from FAT32 to NTFS without losing data(see here). What I want to ask here is, how safe is this method on a 1.5 TB drive with 500 GB of data?

What are the chances of this freezing up(or is there really nothin to worry about) and what is the probable time, a couple of minutes or a whole hour?

Sorry if this seems like a stupid question, just want to play on the safe side here ...

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There's always risk. Microsoft advises you to backup your data before doing this and it's a good suggestion. However, I've converted dozens of drives and never had a problem. Not to say YOU won't run into one, but it's pretty safe - barring a power outage or similar catastrophic event.

Time I can't estimate precisely, but as a SWAG I'd give it a few hours for a drive that size.

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Same here, have done dozens of them and never had an issue. However, if something happens during it, it is probably going to be VERY bad. Have appropriate backups first. – Brian Knoblauch Sep 23 '10 at 17:03
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Okay, problem is I don't have anyplace to backup all 500 GB, my other drives are also filled. Is there a way to split large files, transfer them and reassemble them on the NTFS drive? – Rakward Sep 23 '10 at 18:17
@Rakward: sounds like you need to do some risk management. Find the files you can't live without and back them up. Take the risk with what's left. IF you can't back up the files you can't live without then you absolutely need to buy another drive. – hotei Sep 24 '10 at 3:30
Fine, you can't have to many back ups anyway right. Thanks for the help. – Rakward Sep 24 '10 at 7:59
Thanks for the question-er and answer-ers it helped me decide about my disk usage tooo:) – Ravisha Jan 11 '11 at 11:46
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