Convert NTFS to FAT32 without losing data

Solution 1:

The Live CD of GParted will do what you want.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

Solution 2:

Partition Magic used to be great for this but is no longer available.

I am not aware of any free or built in tool that allows you to do this without first formatting the drive - which, I personally think is the quickest method.

If you can, backup all your data, format the drive as FAT32 then move it back.

Only attempt this on data only drives, not system drives - I am assuming by the fact you want to use it in a PS3, it is just a non system disk.

Solution 3:

I alway used Acronis disk manager quite happily. But converting NTFS to FAT seems a little risky, as there are multiple restrictions (after all there's a reason NTFS is primarily used for larger drives and FAT remains for use for smaller flash drives etc)

• There's the file size limit of around 4GB
• The file-per-folder limit to many subfolders per folder or files per folder will cause in writing errors)
• The name-length restriction (remember that pretty long-named filename in that pretty long-named directory? that probably won't be accessible)