FAT32 to NTFS

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by dogbreath, Apr 6, 2006.

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  1. dogbreath

    dogbreath Registered Member

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    This might have been discussed before but a search couldn't find it.

    I have a Lacie 160GB ext. HD formatted in the NTFS file system. Acronis True Image 9.0 creates one file when I backup my C drive to the Lacie.

    I've just added a Buffalo 300GB ext. HD to my system and it came preformatted and it auto installed (as it was designed to) on connection. An Acronis image saved to this new drive resulted in 18 files all of 4,194,304KB. Then I noticed that the drive was preformatted in the FAT32 format.

    I would prefer the latter disc to be in the more powerful and secure NTFS format and I am aware that I can run convert g: /fs:ntfs at the command prompt to achieve this.

    My question is, although I understand that no data will be lost during the conversion, will the converted files still be accessible to Acronis should either the image need to be reinstalled or when it comes to do my first incremental backup?? Or, will I have to do the conversion to NTFS followed by creating a new image??

    Any help would be most welcome.
     
  2. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello dogbreath,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    Please note that after you reformat your partition the image archives will be available for restore with Acronis True Image 9.0. You can select any of this files to start a restore process.

    Please also note that if you create an image of the partition with FAT file system then after restore the target partition will also be formatted to FAT, even if it has another file system before. Additional information can be found in the Chapter 5.3.7 "Changing the restored partition file system " in Acronis True Image User Guide.

    You may also take a look at the following threads regarding your question:

    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=126713
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=126358

    Thank you.
    --
    Aleksandr Isakov
     
  3. dogbreath

    dogbreath Registered Member

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    Thanks Acronis Support. You have put my mind at rest regarding not losing the ability to restore an image which was saved to an external hard drive formatted in FAT32 and subsequently reformatted to NTFS.

    However, after the conversion to NTFS, will Acronis 9.0 be happy performing an incremental back up to the original image which, under the limitations of the original FAT32 system, was saved as a number of 4GB files?
     
  4. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello dogbreath,

    There should not be any problems with Acronis True Image 9.0 applying an incremental image to a full image which is split into several parts, which by the way are usually called volumes of the multivolume image archive. You can find more information on how to create an incremental image in the User's Guide mentioned above.

    If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

    Thank you.
    --
    Alexey Popov
     
  5. dogbreath

    dogbreath Registered Member

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    Thanks again for getting back. The problem may have 'resolved' itself in that it seems that this type (Buffalo) of ext. HD cannot be formatted in NTFS. So it appears that I'm stuck with FAT32 anyway.
     
  6. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    What model Buffalo drive is this? Is it a USB 2 external drive or a Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive?

    Thanks in advance.
     
  7. dogbreath

    dogbreath Registered Member

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    Hi jmk94903. The model is a USB 2 Buffalo HD-HBU2 Series 300GB DriveStation.
     
  8. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    OK, thanks. I was hoping it was a network attached drive rather than USB.

    The Bufalo drives are good ones.
     
  9. dogbreath

    dogbreath Registered Member

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    Cheers mate. It's no major problem...I'm just a slave to uniformity!!
     
  10. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    What? Some guy in a uniform is keeping you as a slave?

    Change your jumpers!
     
  11. dogbreath

    dogbreath Registered Member

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    Humour!! LOL
     
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