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Is it possible to split an external HD into NTFS and FAT32?

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  • 24-07-2015 8:49pm
    #1
    DeSelby83
    Registered Users Posts: 2,575 ✭✭✭


    Is it possible to split an external HD into NTFS and FAT32?
    I also have a lot of files already stored on the external hard drive. Is it possible to split it without losing any data?


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    #2
    Digital Solitude
    Registered Users Posts: 11,397 ✭✭✭✭Digital Solitude


    You can do the formatting thing yeah, presumably your drive is already in Fat32 or NTFS?

    Use a program like EaseUS Partition Manager to do so. I'm not totally sure about data loss but I think it's okay.

    You want to shrink your partition to 50/50 or whatever the split you want. It'll be half NTFS, half unallocated, then click the Unallocated, and format it to FAT32 and assign it a drive letter, or vice versa


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    #3
    DeSelby83
    Registered Users Posts: 2,575 ✭✭✭DeSelby83


    My harddrive is currently NTFS, thanks for the advice, much appreciated


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    #4
    Digital Solitude
    Registered Users Posts: 11,397 ✭✭✭✭Digital Solitude


    Just be wary of shrinking the partition, mine are all dynamic so I can't test it for you.

    *EDIT* Tested on SSD, you should be fine! Just don't format the NTFS one


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    #5
    mordeith
    Registered Users Posts: 5,278 ✭✭✭mordeith


    I'd imagine the split will have to be more than the space currently occupied by existing data?


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    #6
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Yes it's possible but there's a few things to keep in mind here.

    Don't delete the existing partition for a start!

    You can shrink the NTFS volume in Disk Management to reserve some space for the FAT32 partition. You'll only be able to shrink it as far as the last allocated block on the disk. So if you have a 465GB partition and there's even one block of data at the 450GB mark, you can only shrink it by 15GB. In this case you'd need to do a full defrag (consolidate free space) to go any further.

    If you intend to create a FAT32 partition bigger than 32GB, Windows won't do this for you. You'd need to create a new partition (NTFS or unformatted) and use a third party tool to reformat it to FAT32, such as fat32format.

    Be very careful to observe correct drive letters when doing any formatting job.


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    #7
    Bayberry
    Registered Users Posts: 707 ✭✭✭Bayberry


    DeSelby83 wrote: »
    Is it possible to split an external HD into NTFS and FAT32?

    As a matter of interest, why do you want to do this? Maybe there's a better way to skin that cat?


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