exfat filesystem

Hey /tech/, I have a question. I posted this on /b/ and...as should have been expected...got no suitable response: "I just learned that Vista has a new file system: exfat. I didn't know this when I converted my external harddrive to (what I thought was) fat32, and it turned out to be exfat. Needless to say, my xbawks simply says wtf is this shit? I hate exfat, and what's worse? Try to get some mother fuckin help from microsoft.com. They ain't got jack on there about exfat...Well the main reason I'm writing this is: from the command line, convert.exe says that it's not available for exfat drives. I know you can convert from FAT16/32 to NTFS without file loss, is there a way I can convert from exfat to NTFS without having to format? Thanks.

tl;dr: how do I convert from exfat to NTFS?

pic unrelated, inb4 linux, mac, etc...I know MS sucks, I just don't have the time, patience, nor the motivation to choose another OS"

I'm hoping someone here might be able to help. Is there a way to convert from exfat to NTFS without having to do a complete format?

No.

1) Plug into computer
2) Right click
3) Format
4) Format using FAT32

And no, there is no way to change file system without a format.

exfat = FAT64
basically you can have files larger than 4GB on a FAT file system
still no journaling, permissions, or file ownership IIRC

OP here, I know what it is. My question is relating to changing the file system. I want to go from exfat to ntfs. I know that you can go from FAT16/32 to NTFS without a format, is it possible to go from exfat to NTFS the same way or do I have to format it?

OP again, sorry I missed the last line of #3's post. Disregard the last post.

>>3

because CONVERT doesn't do anything amirite?

>>7
right, convert gives an error that says something to the effect of exfat is not a valid FS for that command...BTW thank you all for your help, I appreciate it.

try shrinking the partition as much as you can and then format the new unallocated space to fat32.