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I have a 5TB external drive with about 200GB of data in it. I want to convert it from exFAT to NTFS but without losing its contents. Currently I have no way to backup the data on the drive, so I need to do this with the data there.

Looking around I found this workaround for a similar question. Basically, from what I understand, I need to:

  1. Create a new NTFS partition, big enough to contain all the data on the drive.
  2. Move all the data there.
  3. Convert the rest of the drive to NTFS.
  4. Merge both partitions.

Will this method work? It seems simple enough but I just want to be sure before trying it.

Richard
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Artemus
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1 Answers1

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You are so close, yet so far... Provided that your data occupies less than half the hard drive in exFAT-formatted partition, but you want to convert it to NTFS:

  1. Backup your original data in case something goes wrong. Don't have a backup? Then you should not be even using a large-capacity drive to begin with... As it is THE EASIEST way to destroy Terabytes of data for only a few hundred bucks...
  2. (Optional) defragment the partition to make the next step go faster.
  3. Resize the exFAT partition to half the space. I recommend GPartEd under Linux (like a Live Linux Mint Cinnamon running from USB stick). Have not used Linux before? Well, you should do your best to forget Windows and switch over to Linux. You can do everything but gaming and overpriced engineering software with Linux... Everything else is a lot easier and is truly free (especially your privacy these days) with Linux!
  4. Create a new NTFS partition. GPartEd again.
  5. Copy over data from exFAT partition to NTFS. I recommend FreeFileSync for ANY data moves/copy/transfer that PRESERVES ABSOLUTELY ALL DATA INTEGRITY AND PROPERTIES.
  6. After integrity of data is verified (using FreeFileSync again), delete original exFAT partition.
  7. Resize NTFS partition to occupy space taken by exFAT.
  8. (Optional) Defragment the new NTFS partition, as most of data would be occupying the less desirable "second half" of your drive (physically).

Update: Oh my! I tried GPartEd and it can't resize exFAT either! The only software I found so far that can resize an exFAT partition is DiskGenius. It has a weird "check every file for errors" rather lenthy pre-check, but it has resized my exFAT partition, and allowed me to follow this sequence (replacing GPartEd with DiskGenius that is).

www.MKRD.info
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