Full Guide: Convert/Change File System to NTFS, FAT32, EXT2, or EXT3 Without Losing Data

How to Convert the File System to NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3 

Storage devices become RAW so you cannot access important data. You Need a way to convert the file system to NTFS, FAT32, EXT2, or EXT3 with a file system converter.

Are you looking for a way to convert the file system of your hard drive, partition, USB flash drive, memory SD card? How to access a storage device since the file system becomes RAW? Do you need to convert the file system of a hard drive to a unique format to install new games on your PC but don't want to lose any data? Relax! All your problems can be solved now. 

Easy and effective methods are available here to help you convert and change file systems for storage devices. You can now follow the five methods below to change or convert the file system.

1. 1. Convert to NTFS/FAT32 Without Losing Data
2. 2. Use a Format Tool 
3. 3. Use Disk Management Tool
4. 4. Try Windows Explorer
5. 5. Run CMD (Command Prompt)

Method 1. Convert to NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3 Without Losing Data

• Applies to: Windows 10/8/7
• Supported File System: NTFS/FAT32
• Easiness: Very easy to all users
• Highlight: No data loss

The most effective way to convert the file system to FAT32/NTFS/EXT2/EXT3 is using EaseUS Partition Master Free. It is a free disk partitioning tool running on the Windows platform. It can change an NTFS partition to a FAT32 partition or convert FAT32 to NTFS without losing any data. Here is an example of converting FAT32 to NTFS:

Step 1. Right-click target device partition and select "Advanced" > "Convert to FAT".

Step 2. When the check process completes, click "Proceed" to start NTFS to FAT32 conversion.

Step 3. Click "Apply" to save all changes.

Method 2. Format the File System to NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3 

If you are not afraid of data loss on your partition or hard drive, you can format the drive to wanted file system like NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3. EaseUS free partition manager software fully supports all Windows systems. You can convert RAW to NTFS, NTFS to FAT32, FAT32 to EXT2, EXT3 to NTFS, exFAT to NTFS, etc by using its "Format" feature. 

• Applies to: Windows 10/8/7
• Supported File System: NTFS/EXT4/EXT3/EXT2/FAT32/FAT16/FAT12/ReFS
• Easiness: Very simple
• Highlight: Support almost all of the file system

Step 1. Run EaseUS Partition Master Free, right-click the hard drive partition you intend to format, and choose "Format".

Step 2. In the new window, set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and Cluster size for the partition to be formatted, then click "OK".

Step 3. Then you will see a warning window, click "OK" in it to continue.

Step 4. Click the "Execute Operation" button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click "Apply" to start formatting the partition on your hard drive.

Method 3. Use Disk Management Tool to Change the File System to NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3

• Applies to: Windows 10 (Different Windows version has different operating steps, the steps is available for Windows 10 only)
• Supported File System: NTFS/FAT32/exFAT
• Easiness: Easy
• Highlight: It is a built-in tool

The Disk Management tool supports users to format storage devices into NTFS/FAT32 by formatting. If you are using an external drive, connect it to your computer. And you can follow to change the file system to NTFS/FAT32 now:

Step 1. Right-click This PC or My Computer, select "Manage".

Step 2. Enter Device Manager and click "Disk Management"

Step 3. Open Disk Management and right-click the target device, select "Format".

Step 4. Set "NTFS/FAT32/exFAT" for the selected device, tick "Quick Format" and click "OK" to confirm. 

Method 4. Convert File System with Windows Explorer

• Applies to: Windows 10/8/7
• Supported File System: NTFS/FAT32/exFAT
• Easiness: Easy
• Highlight: It is very easy and convenient

Follow the steps below to format your partition to NTFS/FAT32/exFAT:

Step 1. Connect your external storage device to PC and open Windows File Explorer.

Step 2. Locate and right-click the target device, select "Format".

Step 3. Tick "Quick Format", set the file system as "NTFS" and click "Start" to begin the formatting.

Method 5. Run CMD (Command Prompt) to Convert the File System

• Applies to: Windows 10/8/7
• Supported File System: NTFS/FAT32/exFAT
• Easiness: A little bit hard
• Highlight: Very convenient to specific users

If you are using a USB flash drive or SD card, connect it to your PC and follow the steps below:

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon, select "Search" and type cmd.

Step 2. Right-click it to run Command Prompt as an administrator, type diskpart, and hit Enter.

Step 3. Type below command lines and hit "Enter" each time:

list disk
select disk 2 (Replace 2 with your USB disk number)
list volume
select volume 10 (Replace 10 with the volume number of the USB drive that you want to format)
format fs=fat32 quick

Then, you can type exit and hit Enter to close DiskPart when it reports to successfully format the volume.

Additional Tips: Export or Back Up Data in Storage Device First

To avoid unnecessary data loss issues in your storage devices such as SD card or USB drive due to file system converting, we highly recommended all users extract or back up important to a secure device or partition in advance.

You may choose to copy files one by one to a new disk or drive. Or if you have quite a big number of data to be transferred, professional backup software shall be your best choice. Here we recommend you try EaseUS Todo Backup which allows you to directly back up target data into compressed image formats within only four steps.

Step 1. For the first time you use EaseUS Todo Backup to back up files, click Create backup on the home screen and then mouse click the big question mark to select backup contents.

Step 2. Since you're going to back up files and folders on your computer, go on with the "File" backup mode, where you can select pictures, videos, documents and all other types of files to back up.

Step 3. Follow the paths to locate the files, folders or directories you want to back up, select them all and click "OK".

Step 4. Now you need to select a backup location to save and retain the backup.

Step 5. EaseUS Todo Backup allows users to save the backup files to every device that is handy for you, like a local hard drive, external USB drive, SD card, network drive, or a NAS drive, plus a cloud drive of the EaseUS brand. We personally recommend users to choose the cloud drive prior to a physical drive to save important backups due to the greater accessibility, flexibility and safety.

To be able to access to EaseUS cloud, all you need is an email registration and login. 

Step 6. If you're interested in an automatic and intelligent backup schedule for the next file backup task, go on with the "Options" setting. There you can encrypt a confidential file backup, compress the backup image size, or customize a backup scheme to tell the software in what time to start the next backup. 

Customize an advanced and automatic backup task here:

Step 7. Click "Backup Now" to start the file backup process. Your completed backup files are visible on the left area in a card style.

Conclusion

After you have learned the 5 solutions above, you can find changing the file system by using a free third-party disk partitioning tool is the best choice. If you are bothered by the same problems, you can turn to EaseUS Partition Master Free. It can not only convert the file system to NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3 but also convert MBR to GPT, GPT to MBR, dynamic to basic, basic to a dynamic disk. You can install this software to explore more fantastic features.