asked on

Go back to FAT16 from FAT32

Hi All,

I just tried merging two drives using Partion Magic 7 under Windows NT 4.

Problem is I merged the C and D drives but appear to have inadvertantly converted them to FAT32.

The system, unsurprisigly, no longer boots, I get 'NTDETECT failed'.

The Partition Magic boot disk doesn't appear to offer an easy way out of this mess.

I have till Monday to fix this computer before the person using it comes back from holiday.

Please help.

Quick.

Many Thanks,

Skipsey.

JammyPak

Unfortunately, here's what I *think* you'll have to do:

1) install an O/S that can read FAT32 (ex Win98)
2) backup all important data and files somewhere on the network
3) re-fdisk and partition the drive as FAT16
4) reinstall Winnt4
5) reinstall all applications
6) reload all backed up data from the network

I'm hoping that someone will come up with a tool or utility for you to fix this more easily, but I don't know of one.

HTH,
JP

skipsey

ASKER

I've got a nasty feeling you're right. You know that feeling when you look bak and think "why did I press that OK button.....?"

Skipsey.

JammyPak

bin there, dun that

:)

adayton

I believe Ghost will take an image file from FAT32 and allow you too restore that image back to a reformatted FAT16 drive. you will need to place the "image" file on a seperate (second) drive.
ad

protofj

however - if the combined drive (used) size now exceeds 2Gb your buggered coz fat16 will not recognize partitions above this limit....

suggestion... create 2 seperate fat16 drives using a boot disk and if necessary a spare HDD - then copy the data back out form the fat32 partition - back to where they were ...... hmmm not as easy as it sounds but would work - you'll need a win 98 or newer boot disk though .....

could have problems restoring long file names...

maybe simpler to insert new HDD temporarily and install OS supporting fat32 then drag/drop old files to new fat16 partitions...

good luck

protofj

just thought - far simpler
boot disk to dos prompt

insert winnt install cd and find convert.exe

run 'convert c: fs/ntfs'

viola - new partition is now ntfs and all is well....

once again good luck

skipsey

ASKER

Thanks for the answers,

If I run the convert.exe action will the disk be bootable again or will I need to perform additional tasks?

Cheers.

protofj

should be bootable - just converts filesystem to NTFS which NT4 can read

skipsey

ASKER

Even though it's over 4 gig in size?

skipsey

ASKER

Even though it's over 4 gig in size?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

protofj

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skipsey

ASKER

Did it and the disk now won't boot. I get a message saying

STOP: c000021a

and it mentions

xmnt2001 program not found
autochk program not found

any ideas?

johnsc7

Convert changes from FAT to NTFS. Apparently Partition Magic can convert from FAT32 to FAT16 - see https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/10194480/FAT32-to-FAT16.html but I havent tried it.

protofj

you may now be running into problems from the first 'merge'

try running a 'recovery' install from the win nt disk

adayton

stop: c000021a

Try this:

0505 » When you run a Repair, Setup refuses to recognize/repair your installation.

While hacking the registry for a future tip, I destroyed my installation so thoroughly that NT would not boot and setup would not repair it. The NTFS file system was still intacted but the registry was so damaged that setup did not recognize a valid installation. While I could have restored, I would have lost 4 hours work.

To fix it, boot to an alternate install of NT and expand the each hive on your ERD (or original %SystemRoot%\Repair folder)
to the original %SystemRoot%\System32\Config folder:

expand c:\winnt\Repair\Software._ C:\WINNT\system32\config\Software
expand c:\winnt\Repair\Software._ C:\WINNT\system32\config\Software.sav
expand c:\winnt\Repair\Default._ C:\WINNT\system32\config\default
expand c:\winnt\Repair\Default._ C:\WINNT\system32\config\default.sav
expand c:\winnt\Repair\SAM._ C:\WINNT\system32\config\sam
expand c:\winnt\Repair\SAM._ C:\WINNT\system32\config\SAM.sav
expand c:\winnt\Repair\Security._ C:\WINNT\system32\config\security
expand c:\winnt\Repair\Security._ C:\WINNT\system32\config\security.sav
expand c:\winnt\Repair\System._ C:\WINNT\system32\config\system
expand c:\winnt\Repair\System._ C:\WINNT\system32\config\SYSTEM.ALT
expand c:\winnt\Repair\System._ c:\WINNT\system32\config\system.sav

Here is an example of the response from
expand c:\winnt\Repair\Software._ C:\WINNT\system32\config\Software

Microsoft (R) File Expansion Utility Version 2.50
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1990-1994. All rights reserved.
Expanding c:\winnt\repair\software._ to C:\WINNT\system32\config\Software.
c:\winnt\repair\software._: 1242580 bytes expanded to 6377472 bytes, 413% increase.

If the files required to boot your alternate install are damaged or missing, you will need a boot floppy (see tip 012). After doing this, I was able to boot and in my case, I was fully recovered. You may need to repair boot records using your ERD.

adayton

this link discusses the xmnt2001 program not found issue.

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1027465246