# problem after converting FAT32 to NTFS



## wendyjillreid (Apr 27, 2011)

I have a WD externally powered hard drive called 'My Book' that I use for backing up files on my windows xp desktop. 

I converted from FAT32 to NTFS so that I could back up 'my pictures' in one hit. All went well except that I now cannot access the hard drive from another computer on my network. I get the message 'access denied'. I am assuming that this has something to do with changing the file allocation system. 

Can anyone help?


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

NTFS has file security which fat32 doesn't. Each file is stamped with a SID [security identifier]. In your system with your SID you can access the file system. Using a different system with a different sid gets you access denied.

You can web search taking ownership of files which, will solve the issue with this other system accessing the files. But than you will have the same issue when you move this My Book back to the original system.

Two suggested solutions;

1. format the drive back to fat32
2. partition the drive into ntfs for the pictures backup and fat32 for everything else you want to share.


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