converting FAT files to NTFS files

I asked this on yahoo answers but the one response i got was of no help,i know there are a lot of knowledgeable people here and more than likely will be of more help
I have an external drive that has FAT files and i would like to convert them to NTFS
I do the command prompt and input
convert f: /fs:ntfs
Then it asks for the drive volume,this is where i'm having a problem,i click on properties of the drive (i was told the drive volume can be found there)
I can't see it anywhere and i'm not sure what it is i should be looking for.
If possible could someone give me an example of what i should be putting in as a drive volume and an example of how exactly i would input it

You don't convert files, you convert the whole file system for a volume.

It's the drive volume label you need to enter. That is the "name" of the volume.

Pep (It is the name of the drive that shows when you look at it in Windows Explorer)

Edited because I realised what the real problem was - and it is a lot simpler to answer!

What drive letter are you trying to convert, for example, do you have an F drive?

As Pep points out, you don't convert the individual files, you convert the drive to the new file system.

It is drive F an external drive and it is the whole drive i want to convert
As i said, i input convert f: /fs:ntfs in command prompt
if i click on the properties of the drive i get this name XXB 22EADS External USB drive ( i have changed the numbers to post here because i don't know if its wise to display them here)
But that is what it shows as a name of the drive,it is shown in properties under hardware
If i input that it does nt accept it

What does it say if you look at it in Windows Explorer as I said above?

Pep (If it has spaces in it rename it to something shorter with no spaces)

What drive letter shows up when you drop to command prompt? It won't work if you're on drive f and trying to convert drive f.

it says c:\Windows\System32>

Where do i find it in windows explorer,is that when you click on computer and it shows all drives
In there it shows as My Book (F

I'm going to stop giving advice now before you really mess something up and blame it on me.

Pep (Don't do it yourself please; get someone who knows something about computers.)

Don't worry about converting it. No real value. Why do you want to convert it?

Well thats why i m here,all i wanted to know and see what an example of a drive volume input would look like and what it is
If i were to see an example of what it is i would input,an example is better than a thousand words
Anyways thanks all the same,just wanted to know what a drive volume label looked like when inputed

Higher performance, less wasted space, less likely to lose files when you crash, ...

You can put files larger than 4GB on an NTFS partition.

That too. That's why VMware splits virtual drives up into 2GB or smaller files.

Plus junction points, file permissions, compressed files, lord knows NTFS is far from perfect but it's oodles better than FAT.

/the timewarp

That's the party line. However in reality the average user will not need them. The amount of space saved is not that much and you get an overhead on decompressing the files. And from the number of times I had to rescue peoples drives, it is almost always an NTFS drive that is giving them a problem. The default NTFS file permissions is that people use is over hyped, and have never stopped me from copying a file they needed. The only security that has stopped me is bit encryption on the drive or file.
If the user cannot do the simple task of converting the drive, how do you expect them to handle junction points? It's better to leave it alone.

My dream if for ZFS for windows one day.

Way to jump on the third message in an exchange. My first response covered the main advantages of NTFS over FAT, these are minor issues, tertiary at best.

I'm nowhere near ready to trust ZFS. There's a boatload of good, solid reliable file systems with decades of exceptional track record, but does anyone bother with them? No, they're not sexy.

(and, no, I'm not talking about newcomers like NTFS or HFS+)

file systems are sexy!

Yes, but do any of them support a 256 quadrillion zettabyte external hard drive?

Sounds like that's in the grouchabyte or even harpabyte range.

If you have files you care about on that 2nd drive I don't think I would trust running a conversion on it anyway, perhaps a better way would be to copy all of the files on that drive into a folder on another hard drive and then just format the F drive as ntfs using the disk manager (warning: make sure you have a full backup of those files as they will be erased by the format). Then you can simply copy the files back and you won't have to worry about the conversion utility not working. Good luck.

One of the chief advantages of NTFS over FAT is journalling. I have lost more files than I care to count over the last couple of decades due to FAT corruption.

What I would like to see in Windows is the Ext filesystem incorporated. Ext is free and open-source, so I don't understand why it hasn't been adapted for Windows. ext3 is a good, robust journaling filesystem, and ext4 adds to that robustness.

Microsoft doesn't want to place Windows under the GPL?

The external f drive is what i am using to back up my computer files with live onecare
Can no one show me an example of what the current volume label for drive drive letter is thats all i want to know.
It seems simple to me these are the instruction but i need to know what i am looking for as to the volume label
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How to convert a FAT volume or a FAT32 volume to NTFS
Note Although the chance of corruption or data loss during the conversion is minimal, we recommend that you perform a backup of the data on the volume that you want to convert before you start the conversion.

To convert an existing FAT or FAT32 volume to NTFS, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
2. At the command prompt, type the following, where drive letter is the drive that you want to convert:
convert drive letter: /fs:ntfs
For example, type the following command to convert drive E to NTFS:
convert e: /fs:ntfs
Note If the operating system is on the drive that you are converting, you will be prompted to schedule the task when you restart the computer because the conversion cannot be completed while the operating system is running. When you are prompted, click YES.
3. When you receive the following message at the command prompt, type the volume label of the drive that you are converting, and then press ENTER:
The type of the file system is FAT.
Enter the current volume label for drive drive letter
4. When the conversion to NTFS is complete, you receive the following message at the command prompt:
Conversion complete
5. Quit the command prompt.