Partition Manager Software

Partition Magic - Partition Manager Software

Extend partition with one step
Resize/Move partition without data loss.
Create, delete and format partion with simple steps. Copy partition and disk to transfer data with ease. Support disk and partition size larger than 2 TB. Keep your data safe even in case of power outages or hardware failure.

About Convert

Use Convert to change the file system type used in a partition.
Important: You cannot convert file system types on compressed drives. First, uncompress the driven, then run the conversion operation.

FAT to FAT32
Use to convert a FAT partition to FAT32. FAT32 partitions have less wasted disk space than FAT partitions. However, you should be aware of the following issues:
1. You must have Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2, Windows 98/Me/2000/XP to access files on a FAT32 partition. If you run an operating system other than these, FAT32 partitions will be inaccessible when the other operating systems is running, even if one of these operating systems is installed on your machine.
2. Some computers have a sleep mode that saves all memory to disk. Because this function sometimes requires a FAT partition, consult your computer manual or contact the manufacturer before converting to FAT32.
3. The minimum recommended size for a FAT32 partition is 256 MB.

FAT to NTFS (Windows NT/2000/XP only)
The FAT to NTFS operation launches the Microsoft Convert utility to convert a FAT partition to NTFS. You must be running Windows NT/2000/XP to complete this conversion. The conversion cannot be performed from the rescue disks. If you boot multiple operating systems, you must be careful when you convert FAT to NTFS. NTFS is only accessible with Windows NT/2000/XP; therefore, the data in this partition will not be accessible if you boot DOS or Windows 95/98/Me.

FAT32 to FAT
Use to convert a FAT32 partition to a FAT partition. To complete this conversion, the partition must have at least 300-400 MB of unused space because of how the FAT file system allocates disk space for file storage.
FAT32 to NTFS (Windows 2000/XP only)
The FAT32 to NTFS operation launches the Microsoft Convert utility to convert a FAT32 partition to NTFS. You must be running Windows 2000/XP to complete this conversion. If you boot multiple operating systems, you must be careful when you convert FAT32 to NTFS. NTFS is only accessible from Windows NT/2000/XP; therefore, the data in this partition will be unavailable if you boot DOS or Windows 95/98/Me. You cannot perform this conversion from the rescue disk.

FAT/FAT32 to 4K Aligned
Unlike an NTFS partition, the first cluster in a FAT or FAT32 partition is not located at the beginning of the partition. Instead, all the FAT clusters come after a group of sectors that are designated as a system area. Because the number of sectors needed for this system area varies, the first cluster may not be aligned on any particular boundary.
During a convert operation from FAT or FAT32 to NTFS, all the sectors in the system area must be converted to clusters. The cluster size of the resulting NTFS partition is dependent on how many sectors are in the system area. If the number of sectors in the system area is a multiple of eight, then the NTFS cluster size can be up to 4K in size (8 sectors x 512 bytes per sector equals 4K). If the number of sectors is not a multiple of eight, then a smaller cluster size must be used when converting to NTFS.
When you convert a FAT or FAT32 partition to 4K aligned, the operation will check the number of sectors in the system area to see if it is a multiple of eight. If it is not, it will adjust the value by padding the number of sectors in the system area and shifting all the data clusters accordingly. This will ensure that if you decide to convert the partition to NTFS at a later time, it is possible to have 4K clusters on the resulting partition.

NTFS to FAT or FAT32
Use to convert an NTFS partition to a FAT. This type of conversion lets you access the partition's files using a DOS or Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP. Converting an NTFS partition to FAT32 lets you view the contents of the partition from Windows 95b/98/Me/2000/XP. However, a FAT32 partition will not be accessible to Windows 95a and Windows NT.

Conditions of conversion
NTFS is a more advanced file system than FAT and FAT32. Therefore, depending on the NTFS features used on the partition, the type of data, and partition size, you will either be allowed to complete the conversion or not.
If you receive an error message and the conversion stops, one or more of the following usually causes it:
1. The file system for conversion is not allowed for the current partition size. The FAT32 partition must be greater than 256 MB and the FAT partition must be less than 2 GB.
2. The Windows 2000/XP NTFS partition has compressed files, sparse files, reparse points, or encrypted files. In such cases, you can uncompress and/or move (or delete) the files or points, then repeat the conversion.
3. The NTFS partition has data in memory that has not yet been written to the hard disk.
4. The file system has errors, such as lost clusters and cross-linked files. You can fix these problems, then try the conversion again.
5. There is not enough temporary space in the partition to do the conversion. The conversion will require the NTFS system and the FAT32 system files until the last step of the conversion. Also, there is data in NTFS FRS's that must be moved to external clusters and saved.
If you can complete the conversion, you may receive a warning about the quality of data and feature loss, depending on the features used on the partition, the type of data, and the partition size.

Warning	Description
Error	The conversion is not allowed. Because the partition being converted is using advanced features in NTFS, you may experience unintended data and feature loss. You will receive an error warning in one or more of the following cases: 1. Hard-links are found that the conversion will not allow if there are: --Two or more hard-links to the same file. Links with the same or different parent. --Two or more long filenames to the same file. Links with the same parent. --Any hard-links to the same file with different parent directories. 1. There are sparse files on the volume. Any sparse files, except for the bad sector file, will stop the conversion. 2. There is more than one data stream for any file.?Any links. 3. Any EA's.?Any user-defined attributes in any file. 4. Device entries.
Warning	The conversion is allowed. Although a conversion warning is not as serious as an error, you may still experience the loss of NTFS-specific features that are not supported in FAT/FAT32. You will receive a conversion warning in one or more of the following cases: 1. Disk usage quotas - NTFS supports limiting the amount of disk space for a user. After conversion, all users will have full access to all free hard disk space. 2. Access control lists - This is a file attribute that lists all the users that can access a file. After conversion, all users will have full access to all files. 3. Index of access control lists - A list of all files that have specific access rights assigned to them. After conversion, all users will have full access to all files. 4. FAST index file - This file is sometimes created on Windows 2000 computers. After conversion, all indexing of keywords will be lost. 5. Old versions of files - NTFS has the ability to keep versions of files, however, only the current version of the file is converted and saved.
No warning	The conversion is allowed. The most basic NTFS partition still gives files more features than are found in FAT or FAT32. When Windows NT 4.0 is used to copy files from an NTFS partition to a FAT partition, no warning is given about the features you are losing. Also, the conversion will not give you a warning about specific features that cannot be converted. These features include: 1. Standard journal file - This file is a transaction log of changes to the NTFS file system. After conversion, the journal file will be lost. 2. NTFS-specific file attributes - NTFS and FAT both have standard file attributes, such as Read-only, Archive, Hidden, and System. NTFS has additional file attributes that can be set. After conversion, however, these additional file attributes will be lost. 3. NTFS-specific file dates - On the last edit time is converted to the FAT date. After conversion, the creation date, last access date, and last edit date (date change only) will be lost. 4. Reliable change journal - This journal file is new to Windows 2000 and XP. After conversion, this file will be lost.

Primary to Logical
If you have reached the limit of primary partitions on your hard disk, you can use Primary to Logical to convert a primary partition to a logical partition. If you create a logical partition, PartitionMagic will automatically place it in an extended partition. You can then create more logical partitions within the extended partition, expanding the maximum number of partitions on the disk.

Logical to Primary
You can use Logical to Primary to convert a logical partition to a primary partition if you plan to install an operating system on it. The partition must be a primary partition to be bootable.
1. To convert FAT to FAT32
2. To convert FAT to NTFS
3. To convert FAT32 to NTFS (Windows 2000/XP only)
4. To convert FAT/FAT32 to 4K Aligned
5. To convert FAT32 to FAT
6. To convert NTFS to FAT
7. To convert NTFS to FAT32
8. To convert a partition to Primary/Logical

Partition Manager Help

About Partition Magic

Getting Started