Convert Dell OS FAT32 Partition to NTFS System Reserve

I received a PowerEdge T310 Dell with a RAID 1 setup. Dell already prepared the HD and no OS. I installed SBS 2011 on it just to find out I cant't do a BMR. I'm finding out it's because of Dell's FAT32 partition. I cannot reinstall the OS because it's now in production. Is there a clean way to delete the Dell 39MB OEM partition, the 2GB OS partition and just leave the C: partition that the SBS 2011 is installed on. I know it won't boot so what is the answer to solve my problem?

Thanks!

Below is the layout:

September 5th, 2012 11:24pm

Hi

For covecrting OS partition to NTFS you need to delete that partition and install the windows again, but why do you want to convert OS partition to NTFS? that partition is not related to C: Partition that have NTFS format.

Good Luck

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September 6th, 2012 3:05am

Hi,

Please seek assisstance at Microsoft SBS Forum  for  further discussion.

The reason why we recommend posting appropriately is you will get the most qualified pool of respondents, and other partners who read the forums regularly can either share their knowledge or learn from your interaction with us. Thank you for your understanding.

 

Best Regards,

September 6th, 2012 7:14am

Hi,

Generally we could boot with the installation disk and run diskpart to delete the 2 partitions. As we will not able to boot after deleting the OS partition, a startup repair (also could be found when boot with installation disk) is needed.

However here are 2 things you may need to confirm:

1. Whether the OEM partition supported to be deleted -- You will need to confirm with Dell.

2. The detailed steps to do the diskpart and the startup repair with a Windows SBS installation disk -- this should be answered by Windows SBS support team, so you could post a thread to the forum provided by Mohammed.

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September 6th, 2012 8:51am

Hi,

Please seek assisstance at Microsoft SBS Forum  for  further discussion.

The reason why we recommend posting appropriately is you will get the most qualified pool of respondents, and other partners who read the forums regularly can either share their knowledge or learn from your interaction with us. Thank you for your understanding.

 

Best Re

September 6th, 2012 1:49pm

Hi,

Generally we could boot with the installation disk and run diskpart to delete the 2 partitions. As we will not able to boot after deleting the OS partition, a startup repair (also could be found when boot with installation disk) is needed.

However here are 2 things you may need to confirm:

1. Whether the OEM partition supported to be deleted -- You will need to confirm with Dell.

2. The detailed steps to do the diskpart and the startup repair with a Windows SBS installation disk -- this should be answered by Windows SBS support team, so you could post a thread to the forum provided by Moham

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September 6th, 2012 1:51pm

Hi,

Here, I give you an easy way to solve your problem. You can try AOMEI Partition Assistant Server Edition to convert FAT32 to NTFS without data lose. What's more, if some day you don't like the file system of NTFS, you can change it back. With its help, you can also resize your partitions.

Best wishes!


September 7th, 2012 7:11am

I solved the problem by adding a drive letter (B:) to the OS system partition.

Used an elevated DOS prompt and went to B:

Ran Convert B: /FS:NTFS

It converted to NTFS without destroying the boot information.

Removed drive letter B: from system partition.

Rebooted (I had to reboot to configure backup again).

Configured server backup and the system partition is now part of the bare metal backup (it did not show prior to this).

I have not tried a restore yet. (will update this next week)

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September 7th, 2012 5:30pm

Hi

For covecrting OS partition to NTFS you need to delete that partition and install the windows again, but why do you want to convert OS partition to NTFS? that partition is not related to C: Partition that have NTFS format.

Good Luck

You are so wrong on that advice.
September 7th, 2012 6:08pm

Hi,

I had the same problem. Server2008R2 installed on a Dell PE410 with the OS FAT32 partition.

What I couldn't find on the Internet is that after typing convert E: /FS:NTFS the system responds with "Convert cannot run because the volume is in use..." and "Would you like to force a dismount"

I was a bit scared what to put in. When I answered with N it asked for "Would you like to schedule it to be converted the next time the system restarts?

This time I answered Y and when I rebooted the server. It all went successfully. See picture.All opened handles to this volume would then be invalid

I thought I share this with others as these Windows questions confuse some.

The partition converted to NTFS and all contents remain intact. I did not had to do any re-installing.

After this I removed the drive letter (E:) from this system partition and rebooted again. I can now successfully make WSB image backup's.

Regards, Gary



  • Edited by Gary_2 Thursday, November 29, 2012 9:14 PM
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November 29th, 2012 9:09pm

I'm glad to hear it Gary.
November 30th, 2012 1:33am

Thank you IbanezWiz and Gary! You solution solved the same issue on my Dell T610 that was upgraded from Server 2008 R2 to Server 2012.
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December 7th, 2012 1:30am

I was following the procedures that Ibanewiz kindly posted. I too ran into that response: "Convert cannot run because the volume is in use..." and "Would you like to force a dismount"

I didn't read Gary's procedures until after I made the mistake of forcing the dismount. After the reboot, I received the friendly message that the "BOOTMGR cannot be found". Somewhere during the process of trying to convert my FAT32 volume to NTFS, I inadvertently made this OS volume inactive. Also, the system assigned my OS volume a random drive letter.

These are the steps that I took to get to my volume and make it active again:

Boot to the OS DVD>Select Repair OS>Go to the command prompt

DISKPART>Select Disk 0 (in my case)

DISKPART>list volume (I noticed my OS volume 2 was assigned a random drive letter)

DISKPART>select volume 2 (in my case)

DISKPART>remove letter=X (the drive letter assigned to your OS volume)

DISKPART>active

This did fix the problem and all is well. I hope my contribution comes in useful for someone.


Regards, James






  • Edited by oneofjames Friday, February 15, 2013 7:35 PM
February 15th, 2013 6:42pm

This did fix the problem and all is well. I hope my contribution comes in useful for someone.

Regards, James

Thanks for adding James!
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March 6th, 2013 8:09pm

Thanks all for sharing. @IbanezWiz., so which method is the most suitable for converting FAT32 to NTFS. 

Do we require a reboot of that machine as James has mentioned., What if i did not reboot as you have mentioned in your steps.

Thanks

Sajith

June 5th, 2013 5:54pm

You will have to reboot in order for the backup and restore to work.
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June 5th, 2013 6:05pm

parabens pela dica, funciona perfeitamente.
July 14th, 2013 1:52am

I was attempting this fix on a remote server and I accidentally made a mistake (see steps below).  If anyone could assist I would appreciate it.

1.  Went into Diskpart and ran list volume:  Noticed that the "system reserve partition" was listed as volume 2 (without a drive letter)

2.  Gave it a drive letter of F:  which made it a FAT32 format

3.  Ran convert F: /fs:NTFS - chose not to force and dismount drive, but chose Y to choose to covert upon next reboot.

4.  Reboot server and now I cannot get into the server.  Unfortunately I'm current not onsite.  I have a tech running out to the site in the morning, but I was hoping to know ahead of time what to expect.

Thanks in advance,
Vj

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December 29th, 2013 7:23am

Hi All,

I have been having the same problem. I converted the disk to NTFS and removed the drive letter and it looks like the C: drive is the active partition now. I'm not sure if this was the case before. I have not yet tried rebooting the server. Should I be converting this NTFS OS partition to active?

Thanks,

Dx.

June 2nd, 2014 5:14pm

Hi,

the query is, server should restart after deletion assigned drive letter (E:) on OS partition or assigned letter should delete after restart server. bcz OS partition has no drive letter, it will be create problem during server restart.

so please suggest

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April 10th, 2015 2:14am

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