fat32 drive convertor

[gobrob]

Ive got a 540 meg hd that I wanted to doublespace, but it says i cannot because it is a fat32 drive.Is there a way to format it back to fat16?
gobrob

[Guyver]

*** SOAPBOX *** (Not saying this belongs in, Saying that following is my personal belief)
Don't do it....

Doublespacing (Drivespacing) a drive is just waiting for a problem to happen....

Too many corruptions, lost files, lost drives, IMX....

Drives are too cheap to mess with
compression routines.
*** STANDING DOWN ***

If you have space problems now, converting from FAT32 to FAT16 is only going to make matters worse. The amount of space each block is going to take is going to increase switching from FAT32 to FAT16. So you will not be able to put as many files on it. Then doublespace (drivespace) will make matters worse by increasing the blocksize again because it thinks it has more room to work with...

Guyv

[Guyver]

If you absolutely, possitively have to try it, then use PowerQuests Partition Magic to do the conversion.

Guyv

[gobrob]

Sorry,I guess you don't understand,I have a 6.4 gig as my main,was just seeing if i added this 540 that i have to back things up on, if I could get more out of it.
gobrob

[Nuno]

Gorob, as I see it, doublespace is a compress disk tool, right? If you will use the drive for backups only, zip the files before you copy it. You will not gain any space if you use a doublespace drive with compressed files anyway.

[Guyver]

DOH!

If it's fast enough, just use it for a 540MB permanent swap file...

Guyver

[DosFreak]

Listen to the guy about compressed files he speaks the truth. If you compress your files and stick them on a compressed drive...that does no good at all. Also if your going to do a backup, it does not make any sense. Making a backup on a Drivespace drive???? uhhh..yeah. Get a CDR and make a backup on that or better yet get that $300 40g maxtor.

[Bohrn]

Listen to these guys! Just use the 540 for a normal backup and keep it fat32. Use winzip or rar or other such to make your backups. And make sure you have the original install file for winzip as a stand alone(not part of the archive) so that you cn get at the rest of the data. Guyver and Nuno are right. You will loose space by converting to fat16 and you will give yourself and everyone around you headaches by using dblspace or drvspace.
Just zip em up and copy em over. My backup file is just over 80 megs, so I'm sure you can get it all there. Unless you have alot of CAD/Cam or other grapics stuff Good luck

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