ok for some reason when i installed XP home edition on my old laptop, XP installed on the FAT32 partition without converting it and i don't know why. i want to switch to NTFS. So what is the best way to do this without having to format or anything like that.

Open a command prompt, type: convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs where "drive_letter" is the drive you wish to make NTFS... depending on the size, it can take awhile, but once done, you're left with an NTFS partition instead of FAT32. Oh, it might be a good idea to run a CHKDSK on the partition before doing the conversion - just to be safe...

but i can do this while using windows, i don't want to loose any infomation

Yes - do as Hank said - system will tell you this cannot be done while windows is running and ask if you want to schedule it for the next reboot. Say yes and then reboot.

Yep - it's totally transparent... I'd try to avoid physically accessing the partition that is being converted while the process is going on (if this is your boot drive you're converting, just run the command and walk away for awhile while it does it' thing), but otherwise, it's pefectly reliable. The only alternative is PartitionMagic or some other third party product, or reformatting the drive. Its your decision...

Just make sure you back up any important data before you take the above steps. I have never had an issue with the convert command myself but it is better to be safe then sorry. KTTD

it's not working. when i open the command prompt it's at: C:\Documents and Setting\"My Name"> then i type c:/fs:ntfs then it says: c:/fs:ntfs is not recognized as an internal or exernal command, operable program or batch file. HELP.