Copying files from NTFS internal to FAT32 external hdd

[jetstream]

Fellas, need your advice here. Had a mishap with an antivirus uninstaller which erased some 100gb of files from my desktop's internal hdd, NTFS formatted. Files simply disappeared from the drive, while others are intact, on that very same partition. Don't know why that happened and why those particular 100gb got lost.
However, I'll try Recuva to recover them to an external hdd. But this external hdd came factory formatted to FAT32. Shall I reformat it to NTFS, which is the same file system as the internal, to be sure that the different formatting won't be an obstacle to save every detail of the lost files? There are probably no files larger than 4gb which is the FAT32 limit, but I'm concerned if the recovered files go from NTFS to a FAT32 disk would not be recovered in the absolute original form with all the background info or the folder tree structure.

 

[cpt_paranoia]

If your external, FAT32 HDD doesn't yet have any files on it, then there is no issue formatting it to NTFS.

There are even tools available to convert disk formats with files in situ; Google it.

 

[eizner23]

Either way your fine. USB and SD cards are FAT32 format.

Did Norton mess things up? Man I hate that sorry excuse for software.

 

[mgosdin]

I would go with a reformat to NTFS on the external drive. 90%+ of the NTFS files would probably transfer to the FAT32 filesystem fine, it's that other 10% or so that could cause heartache.

Mark Gosdin

 

[jetstream]

Thanks everyone. I was intending to reformat to NTFS, the new hard disk even comes with a pre-installed (re-)formatter, but wanted to check with you because the manual says they don't advise to change the formatting for best performance. Probably because of potential mobility issues with NTFS limitations on Mac, hope not something else.

Did Norton mess things up?

AVG. By advise on their forum I ran AVG Clear and AVG Remover, then installed the AVG program. Should be one of these stages that did the mess.

 

[PPstereo]

yup... AVG, Aint Very Good...

Built in windows antivirus is fine if one is savvy enough on staying away from problems. Otherwise just use the pay for Malwarebytes with windows and be done with it.

 

[dewdude]

There's no issue between going from NTFS to FAT32 for file recovery. What file-recovery mostly does is go back and look for data in "unmarked" sectors. When you delete data from a hard drive, you typically don't actually erase the data at that time; you merely mark the sectors as free in the file table. They may be overwritten later at some point. Usually if you run these before you do anything else...the data won't be overwritten and the software can then read those sectors...ignoring the fact the file table says they're empty.

I don't recommend FAT32 unless necessary. Format the external drive to NTFS, it'll be "safer". FAT32 only keeps one copy of it's file table..if something corrupts it; you're screwed. NTFS is a journeled file-system and less prone to this.

 

[jetstream]

Usually if you run these before you do anything else...the data won't be overwritten and the software can then read those sectors...ignoring the fact the file table says they're empty.

Regarding "before you do anything else"...Would surfing the net overwrite the lost data? Opening pdf files in the browser? Streaming videos? Temp files in different partition? That's assuming the lost data is on a different partition than the system files are and nothing new is being saved to that partition, no downloads or any new files, nothing. What action, if any, can overwrite the files on that partition without the user being aware of it? In which case would the system reach for that partition to overwrite the lost files?

 

[cpt_paranoia]

Regarding "before you do anything else"

Potentially, yes. Any activity that stores data on the hard drive, even temporarily, has the potential to overwrite your deleted data, due to the way the disk space allocation works.

 

[Moon_Man]

I had to reformat a 4TB external hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS so that it would talk to my Synergy router. At that time I could not find any software that would do the format without wiping out the files (I had 2+ TB of music on the drive). There seems to be a lot of talk on the interweb about programs that would do that but I never found one. I felt better just backing up the drive to the other drive because that was going to be my backup anyway. Yes, it took time to backup, format and restore the files but it was necessary.

I would avoid using the drive until you can run recovery software. You never know.

 

[cpt_paranoia]

Backing up is probably safer, but the Windows Command Shell 'convert' ought to do it:

https://www.howtogeek.com/58953/how...ive-or-flash-drive-from-fat32-to-ntfs-format/

 

[jetstream]

I would avoid using the drive until you can run recovery software. You never know.

By "drive" you mean the entire hard disk or the partition where the lost files were? In my case it's a hard disk with two partitions, one of which was used just for music files storage and suffered the loss. I'm curious if it is safe to use the pc just for net browsing without saving anything? AFAIK the temp files are on the other partition, along with the system files.

 

[Moon_Man]

Backing up is probably safer, but the Windows Command Shell 'convert' ought to do it:

https://www.howtogeek.com/58953/how...ive-or-flash-drive-from-fat32-to-ntfs-format/

Yup, I tried that I believe. I tried a lot of things so I don't necessarily remember what happened with Convert, but it didn't work. Could be because it was a 4TB drive and I had more used space than unused, I don't know.

I'm a belt-and-suspenders type of guy, so I would avoid using the drive at all. I know that it's a separate partition, and therefore a different File Allocation Table (FAT), (*** I think ***), but if you can't get some files back you'll always wonder if that drive use caused it. Just sayin.

 

[dewdude]

So..just a couple of pieces of advice.

You really can't go from FAT32 to NTFS without wiping the drive...the two filesystems are so drastically different it's not a simple convert. You *could* go from FAT16 to FAT32...and there were utilities for Windows 95C/Windows98 that would allow you to do this...and I recall they worked at least once. If you have a lot of data on a drive you need to convert.....you're almost better off buying a spare drive...and copying to that.

I also want to say you can't have enough redundant copies of your music collection. For example...I have at least three that are reasonably sync'd up; one is on my NAS, one is on my external 4TB, and one is on my portable 3TB drive. Hopefully a failure on the NAS (which is the master) can be 98% recovered from my external drive backups.

Hard drives aren't *that* expensive...and if you're storing your music exclusively "on the PC"...then it should be thought of as preventative maintenance. I recently bought a 4TB external USB3 drive that had a USB3 hub in it for under $100. I suppose if you want to do cloud backup that's ok...but uploading a TB or two of music without really good internet is going to take *forever*.

 

[cpt_paranoia]

You really can't go from FAT32 to NTFS without wiping the drive

Microsoft don't agree:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/convert

There are a couple of caveats, but it is possible.

 

[Bob]

before you start, I highly recommend several things.

1. power everything off a UPS in case a brown/black-out ruins the work.
2. use a disk utility to completely copies sector-by-sector that source to a "test"
3. then run the recovery on the "test" - you may only get one shot at an
in-place recovery of lost sector/cluster/file-entry and you may find several
such utilities and only one disk to play with. and you may also find that your
first of many utilities not to be as advertised.

once your "test" is recovered, then you can use another disk for whatever
other file system, and play with both. file counts count.

if your final destination is a Mac then you may have one more
disk transfer/conversion.

a long time ago, I used to write disk recovery programs at the driver level.
and you be surprised at the assumptions made back then. hopefully today's
programs have everything-to-date accounted for.

 

[jetstream]

before you start, I highly recommend several things.

1. power everything off a UPS in case a brown/black-out ruins the work.
2. use a disk utility to completely copies sector-by-sector that source to a "test"
3. then run the recovery on the "test" - you may only get one shot at an
in-place recovery of lost sector/cluster/file-entry and you may find several
such utilities and only one disk to play with. and you may also find that your
first of many utilities not to be as advertised.

once your "test" is recovered, then you can use another disk for whatever
other file system, and play with both. file counts count.

if your final destination is a Mac then you may have one more
disk transfer/conversion.

a long time ago, I used to write disk recovery programs at the driver level.
and you be surprised at the assumptions made back then. hopefully today's
programs have everything-to-date accounted for.

Not sure if I get this. Can you try with other words? First I clone the damaged partition to a external hdd, then run the recovery from there to another hdd?

 

[cpt_paranoia]

First I clone the damaged partition to a external hdd,

You have to do a low-level, sector-by-sector copy, so you are exactly replicating the faulty disk. Then you try to repair this faulty clone.

 

[jetstream]

You have to do a low-level, sector-by-sector copy, so you are exactly replicating the faulty disk. Then you try to repair this faulty clone.

But from what I understand the "Recuva" utility does not repair anything on the faulty disk. It reads what it can and sends it to a destination of user's choice, which is recommended to be another disk, not the same, due to possibility of overwriting files that are supposed to be rescued. Isn't that the correct way?

 

[cpt_paranoia]

Isn't that the correct way?

That's a way, yes. Feel free to use the method you think is best. We're just giving you options.

ps. Learn the lesson: take regular backups. Hard disks can fail at any time.