"Insufficient Disk Space for Conversion" Error Message When You Convert a Disk from FAT to NTFS in Windows XP (323563)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional
  • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
This article was previously published under Q323563
For a Microsoft Windows 2000 version of this article, see 311393.

SYMPTOMS

When you try to use the Convert.exe tool to convert a file system from the FAT16 or FAT32 file system to the NTFS file system, you may receive the following error message even though there is plenty of available free disk space:
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Determining disk space required for file system conversion...
Insufficient disk space for conversion
The conversion failed.
Drive: was not converted to ntfs

CAUSE

Convert.exe uses specific work areas to create the new NTFS master file table (MFT) during the conversion process. The error message may occur if the FAT partition that you are trying to convert contains bad sectors in this work area at the end of the partition.

To verify that this is the cause of the error message, run the chkdsk /f /r command on the volume that you want to convert. If the output shows that there are bad sectors, this is likely to be the cause of the error message. The following sample output shows bad sectors in the partition: 

C:\chkdsk f: /f /r
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume Serial Number is 00CF-0411
Windows is verifying files and folders...
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows is verifying free space...
Free space verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problem.
   19,525,456 KB total disk space.
      528,064 KB in 154 hidden files.
        5,808 KB in 361 folders.
      420,672 KB in 3,532 files.
           32 KB in bad sectors.  (Note the bad sectors.)
   18,570,864 KB are available.

       16,384 bytes in each allocation unit.
    1,220,341 total allocation units on disk.
    1,160,679 allocation units available on disk.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, you must back up or move all of the data on the FAT32 volume, reformat the volume with NTFS, and then restore your data.

MORE INFORMATION

Note that the error message that is described at the beginning of this article may also occur if the volume that you are converting is in use, cannot be dismounted, and requires a restart. In this case, Autoconv.exe reports the error the next time that you restart the computer.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:8/6/2002
Keywords:kberrmsg kbprb KB323563
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.