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I have a PC I just bought from a friend that built it from mainly used parts where he works (at a computer store). Its a PII 450, with a 13 GB hard drive, the only old parts are the 8x CD-ROM, the floppy drive, and the processor was about a year old. Here is my problem--its currently running DOS 6.22, so obviousluy its in FAT 16 format, and the 13 gig drive is partitioned into several drives. I know I can install Windows 98, but the question is--can I take all the FAT 16 partitions and convert them to one FAT 32 after installing Windows? IS there any partition manager that will do this? Or do I have to reformat and repartition from the beginning? I would prefer not to reformat, there are several DOS programs and some data I want to keep (although being DOS they would fit nicely on floppies). Any recommendations?
Name: Ender Date: May 17, 2000 at 10:10:40 Pacific
Reply:
Partition magic does this and to my knowledge has no limit as to the number of drives that can be converted. Though I would recommend just consolodating the partitions before loading Windows.
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Response Number 2
Name: Agreed Date: May 17, 2000 at 10:39:23 Pacific
Reply:
PM will do just about any partition manipulation you want but I would also suggest using a W98 boot disk to FDISK with large disk support enabled (FAT32) then FORMAT and then install Windows.
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Response Number 3
Name: Maurice Woehrle Date: May 17, 2000 at 12:18:50 Pacific
Reply:
I have done this on about 6 systems so far. I have had best luck in using Magic Mover by PowerQuest ($29 I think). I move the directories, this changes all the pointers on standard icon locations and the Registry. After moving the directories, then reclaim the disk space with Partition Magic - drawback is you have to do one directory at a time, but it keeps everything working. After that, move to the next directory, repeat. After you get everything in one directory, then install win98. After installing win98, it gives you the option to convert to fat32. Patience saves data. Follow these steps and all will work.
IF it running dos6.22 then you have nothing on the computer worth saving you can fdisk the drive and create a new partion(s) with fat32 and install win98 ,
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Response Number 5
Name: billdavis Date: May 17, 2000 at 19:22:40 Pacific
Reply:
iwas fooling around with God knowss what screwing up i dont know when this box pops up do u want to convert from 16 to 32 . I have PII 350 using win98 4 gig hd 64 ram . if i get this prompt again should leave well enuf or what?
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Summary: I have a win 95 version 950b ,it has fat 16 .Hard drive 1.2Gig ..divided into primary and extended partitions..I would like to convert my Fat 16 to fat 32 ..do we have software to do -it .or what else...
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