Before using a USB stick or an external hard drive, you must format it. No problem, because we all know and can do that. You then have to choose between FAT and NTFS. And that choice can sometimes turn out wrong… This is how you format a USB stick or hard drive from NTFS to FAT.
Formatting a USB stick or an external hard drive does not work. You go to This PC, you right-click on the storage device in question and choose the context menu option Format. The dialog box of the same name will pop up and then you can choose – among other things – which File system you want to use on the storage device to be formatted. It will be either NTFS or something like FAT. NTFS stands for New Technology File System and that file system is also on the internal C: partition. FAT stands for File Allocation Table and that is frankly a thing of the past of DOS. It is therefore not illogical to opt for NTFS. Namely, NTFS brings you a lot of good, including being able to assign user rights in detail; something that can be essential in an environment with many users!
Only… NTFS can sometimes work against you. For example, if you use the removable storage device in multiple places and in multiple situations. With another PC, with a media player, with a smart TV, and so on. Then suddenly the assigned user rights can bother you, but it’s also possible that the host device at that moment can’t handle NTFS. What to do if you (1) don’t have a second stick and/or if you (2) don’t have the opportunity to copy the files from NTFS to FAT?
Disk Management
Before we get serious, click Windows key+X to go to Disk Management to go. You will then be shown which storage devices are connected to the PC. One of those storage devices is the primary hdd/ssd containing the C: partition that Windows 10 contains. Another storage device is the USB stick or the external hard drive, where you check which file system is used. Is NTFS that file system? Beautiful: “Then you go on to the next round!”
In the meantime, another small step. Go again to This PC and right-click the external NTFS storage device. Choose the context menu option Characteristics and go to the tab Security. That tab Security is therefore a purely NTFS thing, where it can be set, for example, that only the Administrator has all rights. This just as an example to show you where you (connected to another system) can be hindered if you use NTFS.
Back to FAT
If you’ve come to the conclusion that NTFS was an unfortunate choice and you actually want to downgrade to FAT, then the trouble begins. Windows 10 has a DOS-like command (= CONVERT (drive letter): /fs:ntfs) to convert from FAT to NTFS, but not vice versa; because who would want that after all?
Time for outside help in the form of EaseUS Partition Master Free. And we can already reveal that we work creatively. You have to, because if you want to convert from NTFS to FAT in one go, it will invariably cost money; and of course you don’t have to! With our free solution the requirement that the NTFS storage device should not be completely full of folders and files. A fill level of just under 50 percent is ideal, otherwise it will simply become a repetition of moves. Well, we’re going to do it something like this:
We shrink the NTFS partition, freeing up empty storage space. We initialize the empty storage space as a FAT partition with its own drive letter. Then we copy files from NTFS partition to FAT partition. If not everything is copied, then we shrink the NTFS partition and we enlarge the FAT partition. Then we copy files from the NTFS partition to the FAT partition again. If not everything has been copied, we will shrink the NTFS partition again and enlarge the FAT partition again. Once everything has been transferred to the FAT partition, we will delete the NTFS partition. Finally, we will enlarge the FAT partition so that it takes up all the available storage space.
To work
You can of course also perform these steps with a partition manager other than EaseUS Partition Master Free, but that aside. We are now going to get started with the EaseUS program:
Right click on the removable storage device and choose Expand/Move partition. If the dialog box of the same name appears, make the existing NTFS partition as small as possible or necessary. click on OK and let the change take effect. Then click the Unallocated storage space right-click and choose Create partition. Now choose a Logical partition containing the file system FAT32 and click again OK. The removable storage device now has two partitions: an NTFS and a FAT32. Each with its own drive letter.
The next step is to copy the data from the NTSF partition to the FAT32 partition. To immediately throw away everything that has been transferred from NTFS to FAT32. (Of course, that only works if the files ‘fit’ on the FAT32 file system.)
If the NTFS partition is returned empty, we will continue. If not then (as above) shrink the NTFS partition, enlarge the FAT32 partition and copy the data.
Okay, the NTFS partition is now empty. Right click on that empty NTFS partition and choose Delete partition. Right-click the FAT32 partition and choose Enlarge/Move partition. Then give all freed up storage space to the FAT32 partition. Finally, right-click the FAT32 partition and make it a primary partition.
The final result is a removable storage device with, as desired, a FAT-like file system. That too for free and arranged for nothing! And it wasn’t that much work…
simpler
The procedure we describe here is, of course, cumbersome. A faster route would be: copy everything from the stick to a folder on the PC. Format the stick as FAT and then copy everything back to the stick. But the procedure in this workshop has given you a good idea of the possibilities of playing with partitions. And that knowledge also comes in handy when you want to resize or shrink partitions on your hard drive.
