repartition hard drive from fat32 to nfts in boot camp?

[drmab1]

I was repartitioning my hard drive in Boot Camp prior to installing windows xp, but changed my mind after I had chosen to partition in fat32 and did not complete the process. Now my hard drive sees itself as partitioned and I cannot use Boot Camp to install Windows XP. When I try using Boot Camp again, I get the message :
"the startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition. Backup the Disk and use Disk Utility to fromat as Mac Os..... Restore your info to the disc and try using Boot Camp again...."

My question is: is it even possible to reformat the hard drive from fat32 to nfts? I am new to MAC switching from Windows and wanted to install an embroidery software.


Thank you for your help. HOpe there is someone there who can help.

 

[spinnerlys]

Mac OS X and Boot Camp Assistant only "offer" FAT32 as an option to format the Boot Camp partition.

During the installation process of Windows XP though, you will be asked, by the Windows Installer, if you want to format the drive with NTFS.

That is the route to take.


To get your Mac to work again (having two partitions) either try Disk Utility via Applications > Utilities or the Install DVD, or you can re-install Mac OS X (but you have to format the drive again with Disk Utility - see link above) and try again.


And use MRoogle to read many (more than many) threads about the proper procedure of installing Windows and all the associated problems.

 

[iLog.Genius]

A lot of users get confused. Boot Camp assistant is really just there to help you create a new partition to install Windows on. By default, it does format the partition to FAT32 but that isn't important since you'll have more options/control once you actually start to Windows installation process.

 

[Fry-man22]

You can change the file system of the partition in question by reformatting during the windows install. I would NOT delete the partition and have XP muck with the partition table, just reformat it as NTFS.

Even if you had installed on the FAT32 partition you can convert it from within Windows pretty easily.

Converting FAT volumes to NTFS
To convert a volume to NTFS from the command prompt

Open Command Prompt. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.

In the command prompt window, type: convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

For example, typing convert D: /fs:ntfs would format drive D: with the ntfs format. You can convert FAT or FAT32 volumes to NTFS with this command.

Important Once you convert a drive or partition to NTFS, you cannot simply convert it back to FAT or FAT32. You will need to reformat the drive or partition which will erase all data, including programs and personal files, on the partition.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984.aspx