I Googled this but didn't find much.

I'm attempting this via the command prompt:

convert E: /FS:NTFS

And I receive:

CONVERT is not available for FAT32 drives.

Is it because it's a flash drive?

Thanks,

Jeremy

If you don't have data on it already, then maybe you should try to format the drive as NTFS rather than converting it.

If you already have data on it, then maybe copy it to HDD, then format it as NTFS.

FYI:

Also, XP diskpart doesn't support USB flash drives, but Vista diskpart does. Maybe consider partitioning it with Vista diskpart if you want multiple partitions. Vista diskpart will allow you to format any size partition as NTFS. I've even done a 10 MB partition as NTFS just for testing.

As far as I know there are some devices that can´t be formated in NTFS due to technical limitacions of the hardware. THat USB drive (FLASH) could be one of them.

Perhaps you may have more luck with Partition Magic?

I had a problem formatting removable usb drives as NTFS. However, I was able to use the Hitachi MicroDrive driver to make XP see them as fixed drives. Then format away. Just google for Hitachi MicroDrive Driver and right-click, "Udate Driver" in the device manager.

Windows Vista's DiskPart utility supports USB drives; other than that, I would google for the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.

If i'm not mistaken, doesnt NTFS wear out flash drives quicker?

If i'm not mistaken, doesnt NTFS wear out flash drives quicker?

I think that's because of the "last access" time stamp for files, which can be disabled in the registry.

Go to Device Manager and set the policy of the USB Stick device to "Optimize for Performance". The default is to optimize for Quick Removal, which restricts you to the FAT filesystem.

If you do this, then you absolutely must go through the the annoying removal dialog to unmount the filesystem before unplugging the drive. If you don't, then you have a good chance of losing data.