Partition Magic is supposed to be able to convert a partition from NTFS to FAT32, but I believe that NTFS is more economical with space, which means if the NTFS partition is too full, the data may no longer fit on the FAT32 partition, and you will lose some or all of it. Messing around with the underlying structure of your data is always going to be a little risky. If you can't afford a DVD burner, I would say use a CD burner instead - they are cheap as all hell now, and blank CDs are too. It will take a while, but if you're ruthless with what you backup and delete everything you can get somewhere else, it shouldn't be too bad.

Generally, ANY filesystem conversion is VERY DANGEROUS. So, you need to backup your data, unless you can live without it.

Since you have to either backup or take the chance of losing data, may as well, delete the drive and start a new.

Note that you can access ext3 formated drives from Windoze using ext2 explorer. You can't write though.

For such a large harddrive, journaling fs is a very good idea. If you are not going to access your harddrive from other OS, you can try out jfs or even xfs. I used jfs on external USB harddrive. Use it to move huge (gigs) wav file about. Real smooth.

If you ever have to do anything like this again, just borrow a friend's hard drive and move everything from your NTFS onto it. Make a filesystem of your choice on the now-empty drive and then move everything back. Done. You can do it all under a Linux Live CD and it's almost completely painless (unless you're afraid of screws).

thats not entirely true. it is possible to access ext3 disks from windows. i use a program called total commander and with a plugin i could access my ext3 partition from windows XP

well I replied to that post quite a long time back

At that time I had used quite a few ext3 partition viewers for windows and they did not work well for writing purposes or were not reommended as they could damage the ext3 filesystem.

I do not know about the consistency of the latest ext3 partition viewers from windows for writing purposes.

I think they are still good for only read purposes.

regards

Even better, reiserfs for win32:
http://rfsd.sourceforge.net/

And the rest:
http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/ext2.html
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/%7Ejn/linux/explore2fs.htm
http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html

yeh i also used partition magic on my 160gb seagate external hd and lost 120gb's of music ... no good the experts at seagate told me the Partition Magic screws up external hd's often.

It is always possible, to read non native partitions.

Possible, but not recommended.

Personally, even the thought of allowing bug and virus ridden Windows to touch my Linux partitions gives me the willies.

I know of at least one way to overcome this.
Total Commander has a plugin which allows you to access ext2 and reiserfs filesystems from Windows. But it has some drawbacks: it provides only read access and it looks like it can't see logical partitions (only primary ones).

I think that for an experienced programmer this would not be an issue.

There are a variety of ways to go about converting any file system to another.

Step 1. Identifying the filesystem
Step 2. Identifying the scope of the filesystem
...
// Those steps can be accomplished by way of fdisk -l
Once you determine the start and end of each partition you can then move to clean those partitions by moving all file chunks to a linear order. This is usually done by using an utility such as "defrag", this is called "defragmenting".

Once you find out the extent of your actual harddrive space taken up. You can choose one of two methods for your "reconfiguration" of your harddrive

The two methods are by using a secondary source e.g. another harddrive or network drive, ftp etc.., or by creating space from unused space on the harddrive, or a combination of the above.

If you have another drive the process is simple, transfer and format to your new fs, and transfer the files back appropriately -:- you may loose some inherent characteristics during the transfer though. If you don't have another drive you just need to add a few steps.

If using just one drive for the filesystem conversion you may need to do some tricks.
Step 3. Once defragged, create a new partition on the drive starting around where your file data ends on the defragged drive.

Step 4. Once you make the new partition in your NEW FS type, transfer as much data as you can to the NEW FS partition.

// Repeat the process 3 and 4 until you change the data balance from your old OS to your new OS. In the end you should be left finally with a small partition remaining from your old os. Note that for some OS's you may need to leave a certain amount of data unaltered such as OS files that allow the function of your OS. Be sure not to overwrite your FStab or other things by accident.

Step 5. Once you have a bunch of "Common" FS partitions.. merge them. This would be by ammending the FS's to continue where the first one leaves off ect.

// of course knowing your FS's is a good first step, and for the newbie doing all these things may be more complex. The point is.. it isn't difficult to do, you just need to know how your FStab is contructed for each file type, and how to translate the fs tab.

Even without the FS you still have raw data. It is just a matter of how that raw data is stored and how the linkage of clusters are stored and read from one another that is via the FStab.

-- I thought I should add. If you know how to JUST convert eh FStab info then it'll be a lot easier.

here is another fyi, you cannot convert from ntfs down to fat32 . the only way to do that is to format the drive. gurus, this is for me: if you transfer an ntfs file to an ext2 or 3 partition will it be converted to that fs?