Forum Discussion
How to convert NTFS to FAT32 without losing data on Windows 11/10?
If your 4TB hard drive is in NTFS format and Mac cannot directly write to NTFS format, you can indeed consider converting it to FAT32, so that both Windows and Mac can support it. However, direct formatting is definitely not an option because you cannot lose so much data. I have encountered a similar situation before, and later used Partition Manager to directly convert NTFS to FAT32, and the data was not lost at all. Moreover, this tool is easy to use and can be done in a few steps. I recommend you to try it.
I followed this tutorial: (worked for me)
https://www.gicmodo.com/how-to-convert-ntfs-to-fat32
If you have extra space on your hard drive, you can also use Windows' built-in Disk Management tool to partition it and format the new partition as FAT32. Then you can slowly move files from NTFS to this new partition. Although this is not a direct conversion of NTFS to FAT32, you will not lose data if you do it step by step. Once you have moved all the data, the remaining NTFS partition can also be reformatted to FAT32, and the entire hard drive will become FAT32. This method is slow, but safe.
This method is actually quite simple. Although it takes a little time, you don't have to worry about data loss. Here are the general steps:
- Check hard drive space: Make sure your hard drive has enough free space to create a new partition.
- Partition a hard drive: In Windows, press Win+X and select "Disk Management". Find your NTFS hard drive, right-click, and select "Shrink Volume" to reduce the free space as needed and create a new partition.
- Format the new partition as FAT32: In Disk Management, right-click the new partition, select "Format", and select FAT32 as the file system.
- Move files: Slowly move the important files on your hard drive from the NTFS partition to the newly created FAT32 partition. This ensures that you transfer files step by step without losing data.
- Convert the remaining NTFS partition: Once all files have been moved to the FAT32 partition, you can format the remaining NTFS partition to FAT32. This will successfully convert the entire hard drive from NTFS to FAT32.
Although this method is not a fast way to convert NTFS to FAT32, it ensures safety and does not cause data loss.