Free to Convert NTFS External Hard Drive to FAT32

Are you trying to convert a NTFS external hard drive to FAT32 file system? It sounds ridiculous because NTFS is usually considered as a file system that has better performance, but sometimes you do need to convert a disk or external hard drive to FAT32 file system for better management. For whatever reason, do you have any clue on free to convert an external hard drive from NTFS file system to FAT32?

Common Methods to Convert External HDD NTFS to FAT32

There are two common methods to convert an external hard drive from NTFS to FAT32 file system:

1. Format external hard drive from NTFS to FAT32 (data loss)

This is the easiest way to change file system of external hard drive to FAT32, however it would erase all information on your hard disk.

Pay attention: Backup data in advance because format will erase everything.

Related Article: Convert NTFS to FAT32 without format

2. Use a NTFS FAT32 converter

There are many NTFS FAT32 convert tools online. If you would like to use any converter to change external hard drive from NTFS to FAT32, you may use free tool Partition Resizer which can help change storage media from ntfs to fat32 without losing data.

Two steps to change hard disk partition NTFS to FAT32 on Windows

Step1. Right click the disk partition and select "Convert to FAT32" option.

Step2. Confirm to perform converting and click "Apply Changes" button.

==> For more other methods to convert NTFS to FAT32, please go to this page: Convert NTFS to FAT32 without data loss

External Hard Drive Is Too Large to Convert to FAT32

Have you ever received the alert message saying an external hard drive is too large to convert to FAT32? Let’s see a user’s FAQ firstly:

"I tried to format my 232GB external hard drive to FAT32 file system, but it only shows NTFS an exFAT under file system section while formatting it. When run cmd to convert the external hard drive from NTFS to FAT32, it says the volume is too large to convert to FAT32."

==>> To read the original question of this user, please visit User from Microsoft forum who failed to convert external hard drive from NTFS to FAT32

Solution:

For the question above, following information may give you some clue:

1. In order to meet users’ demand for a large amount of data storage, today’s external hard drive usually has a high capacity from 500GB to 4TB. For the security of data and good performance, an external hard drive was often formatted to NTFS or exFAT32 file system. Although Windows system still allows its users to read and write data on any portable HDD that has FAT32 file system, it disables users to format an external hard drive to FAT32 file system when its capacity is larger than 32GB.

2. Command prompt has the ability to convert partition file system, but it does not allow anybody to convert NTFS to FAT32 on any Windows operating system.

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