NTFS to FAT32

[parimal]

Hey guys,
I have 40GB hard drive running on WindowsXP Professional. I have made 5 partitions of that. Currently all partitions are in NTFS file system. Now I want to get switched to FAT32 format as I want to load Windows98 on that. I have Partition Magic 8 installed on my drive. I think this software allows to convert NTFS to FAT32. But is it safe to convert NTFS to FAT32?? I was told that it is necessery to merge all partitions, then format in FAT32 and then again make partitions using FAT32. But my problem is that I want to convert NTFS to FAT32 without loosing my data..!! Should I use Partition Magic for this??
-Parimal.

[Panama Red]

PM8 should work fine for what you want to do. No need to merge partitions either. I've used PM8 several times without errors, but they do recommned making backup disks. And backing up your data would be wise too.

[Multiple_Personas120]

Yeah, i'm gonna agree, PM8 is probably the easiest thing I've used since the NES. But beeeeeee careful you can mess stuff up. (guilty)

Multiple Persona #234

[FLG]

I know you can easily go from FAT32 to NTFS...but going from NTFS back to FAT32 might be a problem..PM can do it but theres a risk of your data getting destroyed so make backups.

[neouser99]

you have to reformat that particular partition...you don't have to reformat everything. you cannot convert from NTFS to FAT32. NTFS was built off of FAT32, but can't revert back to it. It is one of those weird things, the way the folder structure and permissions are set up.

-neo