Can you change a drive's file system without reformatting the drive?

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I have a 2gb usb drive that I am trying to fix. I believe that the file system was messed up when I tried to save a file to it. I was using a laptop with sketchy USB ports. It seemed that whenever I moved the laptop, the USB ports would temporarily disconnect from anything connected to them, so I think I tried to save a file while moving it. The SMART stuff says that SMART is unsupported, and the only thing I can think of is either sending it to a proper data recovery center and getting it fixed (which would probably cost more than I would be able to pay) or changing the file system to fat32 or any other file system it might have had.

So is there a way to change the file system as a string or something like that?

Lucian3434

Posted 2017-02-03T14:26:13.673

Reputation: 1

So are there files on the drive you want to recover? SMART is a firmware thing, and I assume it's saying it's not supported as it's connected through the USB interface. – Darren – 2017-02-03T14:28:48.997

You have a XY problem. As @FleetCommand wrote in his answer, what you're trying to do will only make things worse. There's free data recovery software such as testdisk, that's your best bet if you don't want to pay for professional recovery service.

– gronostaj – 2017-02-03T14:34:17.960

Answers

2

There definitely are ways to convert the file systems to each other but that does not seem to be the answer I must give to your question.

You want to convert the file system because you think doing so fixes your file system. (By the way you didn't specify what is the damage.) I am afraid you are wrong; it does not. Trying to convert the file system when it is damage is definitely not a good idea. At best the damage remains. At worse, the file system is destroyed in process. There is also the possibility of the conversion failing with an error message that reads "The file system is damaged"!

user477799

Posted 2017-02-03T14:26:13.673

Reputation:

Asked: 2017-02-03T14:26:13.673

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Active: 2017-02-03T15:46:59.390