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Unnexpected conversion

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13 replies

by techierob

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Hey all

I have noticed something quite odd over the past month or so in my MBSA reports and logs. Apparently one of my client PCs running windows XP pro has converted its file system to FAT 32 all by itself. I know its strange but it seems to be the case.

I had another client PC do the same not so long ago too... both of these PCs are very similar, but I know for a fact that they were installed with NTFS partitions and windows XP pro. Is there any known issue for random conversions like this? This one truly has me baffled

13 replies

by willcomp

To the best of my knowledge, file system conversion is a one way street. You can convert from FAT32 to NTFS but not the other way around. Once it's NTFS, it stays NTFS.

Are there multiple partitions on the HDDs in question? Some manufacturers install system recovery files on a FAT32 partition.

Dalton

by techierob

Poster rated this answer.

It certainly defies all technological logic doesn't it? I realise that you cannot convert backwards, yet these pcs have managed to. There is nothing unusal in the setup and they are all running one partition.

MBSA returned this for this XP pro machine (former NTFS)

File System
Not all hard drives are using the NTFS file system.

I have since converted it back to NTFS but I can't explain how it can possibly convert itself back

by rindi1

Is there a partition utility like partition magic installed? If so, could it be that your client has played around with that software? I can't believe that this can happen "automatically", except maybe through virus activity, but i've never yet heard of any virus doing that...

by techierob

Poster rated this answer.

No third party or additional disk utilities were installed on these machines. Both were reletively unchanged from factory configuration (only standard office applications were installed). From my experience with PM, it won't reverse a conversion.

by rindi1

Don't forget you don't need to install these tools, you can also run them from CD or FD. I am your opinion that it doesn't work automatically, so I'd keep an eye on those clients who have probably run those tools for some reason.

by techierob

Poster rated this answer.

These clients needed help turning on their computers in the morning. I seriously doubt they could run something like Partition magic

by p.j.hutchison

Not that I know of, its possible to install XP with either FAT32 or NTFS at the start. They cannot convert by themselves, unless the user reinstalled XP using FAT32 without you knowing...

by techierob

Poster rated this answer.

I keep all software locked in a filing cabinet behind me, and all the product licence keys too... I seriously doubt they could do a reinstall without me knowing about it, due to the fact that we do run a domain also...

by ryfry9

I agree. Thats a one way street. Once you do it, its done. However, if the drive is partitioned (20 gig fat32, 20 gig ntfs), it may be able to return to state. When formatting a hard drive to install an os, make sure that you ALWAYS RUN FDISK ON YOUR OWN. Delete every partition, logical, etc. and make your own. I doubt any virus or other POS that can be caught on the Inet could do that. And most end users such as employees would have no clue on advanced operations such as.

by techierob

Poster rated this answer.

Very true... It seems I have asked the unanswerable question here :)

by rindi1

Since those users need help to turn the PC on, it is my guess they have asked the "Computer Expert" next door and that "Computer Expert" did the conversion.

You might have two problems to think about:

You may have to try to find out if your help desk is working properly, if the "customers" aren't satisfied, they may ask someone else to help them out.

There could be someone prowling around at dark hours tampering around with the PCs, maybe to extract information for themselves? Converting an ntfs partition to fat32 could be a good way to get to that information...

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