copy image of WinXP (NTFS) partition from FAT32 partition to an NTFS partition?

I know I can copy ordinary data files from a FAT32 partition to an NTFS partition, BUT

Can I copy an image of my WinXP (NTFS) partition

FROM a FAT32 partition on another drive

TO a second NTFS partition on the original drive?


In other words, the first hard drive has two NTFS partitions - C and E. The second hard drive has several FAT32 partitions.

Additional INFO:

The first hard drive is on a swappable drive drawer. One drawer is for Win 98, and the other is for Win XP. So, I just shut down and swap drawers when I want to switch operating systems.

On both drawers I have two partitions, one with the OS and another (Drive E) for storage. So no drive letters change when I swap the hard-drive drawers. But the file system does. On the Win 98 drawer, both partitions are FAT32. On the Win XP drawer, both partitions are NTFS.

The other hard drive (partitions D, F, and G) is for data only and can be accessed from either WinXP or Win98, depending on which is in the computer at the moment.

The image I want to copy is now on G (FAT32). I want to copy it to E (NTFS)on the Win XP hard-drive drawer. That image is an image of the C partition on the Win XP hard-drive drawer.

I see no reason why I can't do this, but I just want to make sure.

If I understand correctly, the file system of the partition imaged doesn't matter.

 

Yes you can... TI image files don't care what the file format of the drive they're stored on is (just like any other file). The only thing you can't do is restore an NTFS image to a FAT32 drive and vice-versa.

 

Hello kate4334,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Slight correction and addition to what howie123 said. If the image is larger than 4Gb you won't be able to copy it to FAT32 partition because FAT32 has the limitation on file size, i.e. a file cannot be larger than 4Gb (it is not connected with Acronis software however and the same problem is with any other file).

As for restoring NTFS to FAT32, I believe howie123 meant the convertion of file system on the partition that is being restored. If so his statement is correct. To prevent possible confusion, you can restore the image of NTFS partition to FAT32 partition because Acronis True Image just replaces the old partition (FAT32 in our example) with the one from the image (NTFS).

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

No, the image contains the same file system as the partition it would be restored to -- NTFS. It's an image of the Win XP OS and installed programs (including True Image).

But I created this image on my other hard drive, in a FAT32 partition. I now want to move a copy to a second partition on the first hard drive, an NTFS partition.

I just wondered if an NTFS image created for a FAT32 partition, would damage the file system of an NTFS partition it was moved to. I know you can do that with ordinary data files. But since an image isn't a normal data file, I wanted to make sure it's okay to do that.

So, the 4-GIG limit doesn't apply in this case.

But it does raise another question though: Doesn't True Image automatically span the image if it's bigger than 4 GIGs when creating it on a FAT 32 drive?

 

Hello kate4334,

Acronis image file is the same as any other file. It can be stored on any type of partition without any problems. It doesn't matter what file system had the partition you imaged. If you create the image and store it to FAT32 partition Acronis True Image splits the file automatically into 4Gb parts. However, if you choose to store the image on NTFS partition and it appears to be larger than 4Gb you won't be able to copy it to FAT32 partition. That is what I meant in my previous post.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Ah! Now I get it. That makes sense, too. Thanks for the warning. It's no matter yet, but it will be someday.