Is it possible to format a system drive ntfs?

bettyhills · 02-02-2010, 10:31 PM

Is it possible to format a Fat32 Ubuntu system drive to ntfs leaving the program and data undisturbed?

I created a gparted liveCD and used it to format a slave drive to ntfs. It worked perfectly.

Can the gparted liveCD be used on the master drive similarly without destroying the existing files on it?
__________________
.

AMD 1700 2.66ghz, 1gb memory, 80gb HDD plus 60gb HDD, Nvidia TNT2 AGP Video, DVD +/-RW, running Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 Standard Desktop installation

chrism01 · 02-02-2010, 11:36 PM

I sincerely doubt it. Format programs usually do just that (format). They don't attempt to figure out what the current format is and re-write the files as they go. Besides, the 2 filesystem formats may have incompatible options eg ownerships/permissions etc.

ongte · 02-02-2010, 11:36 PM

I don't think there's a way to convert FAT32 to NTFS without losing data.

Anyhow, I don't understand how can a FAT32 partition be your Ubuntu System drive?
Ubuntu should be using ext3. Did you install it in Windows using Wubi?