# convert to fat 32



## rayzin (Jun 6, 2000)

I am working on a 686 with win 98se, 16 MB RAM, 1.5 GB HD. I would like to convert the drive to fat 32 but it will not go into dos mode. I go through the little wizard in windows and it looks like the machine tries to go into dos but I only get a flashing cursur on black screen. I left it overnight and still nothing. The drive is only 1.5 GB.
I also booted to a startup disk and did:
c:\windows\cvt1.exe
and got: 'cannot run from dos mode'
Any suggestions? I will check back later today to see what came up.


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

Have you tried booting to a boot disk and try DOS from there?


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## rayzin (Jun 6, 2000)

I tried from a windows start up disk and a windows 98se cd. I was able to boot. The trouble seems to be the machine not able to boot to dos mode on it's own.
Is there a way to run the converter from the cd?
I also tried:
c:\windows\command\cvt.exe 
(not cvt1.exe) and came up with: microsoft fat to fat32 converter screen. It told me I needed to run the command from the start menu, programs, etc.


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## Lurker1 (Jan 30, 2001)

Hi Rayzin

Are you sure its worth the botter to convert that small of a drive? You won't gain much and some oler programs may not be able to run.

http://www.project9.com/fat32/

You might try running the conversion program from safe mode. Make sure that the virus protect is turned off in the bios before starting. (This is an a protection that some older computers had built in that stops the boot record from being changed.)


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## rmbler (Feb 3, 2004)

in win 98 you should be able to convert to fat32 under system tools


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## rayzin (Jun 6, 2000)

System tools is where I started all of this from!


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## mayday55 (Mar 19, 2004)

I also was getting the blinking cursor/nothing happening thing. I had to Remove the Convert Tool and re-Install it from the Win98se CD. The conversion worked correctly then, took about 20 minutes on 1.2 Mhz AMD processor, gained about 200 Megs, no data loss, everything works as before.

Remove:
Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Windows Setup (tab at top), System Tools, Details (button), uncheck Drive Converter (FAT32), OK.

Install:
Same as above, except check box for Driver Converter (FAT32) this time (I had to Browse CD and select win98 folder before install would proceed).


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