Microsoft KB Archive/933169

= The upgrade option is not available when you try to upgrade a computer to Windows Vista, and you receive the following error message: &quot;To upgrade to Windows, the hard disk partition must be formatted as NTFS&quot; =

Article ID: 933169

Article Last Modified on 6/26/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Windows Vista Home Basic
 * Windows Vista Home Premium
 * Windows Vista Ultimate
 * Windows Vista Business
 * Windows Vista Enterprise
 * Windows Vista Starter
 * Windows Vista Business 64-bit Edition
 * Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit Edition

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This article is intended for a beginning to intermediate computer user.You may find it easier to follow the steps if you print this article first.



Symptoms of the problem
When you try to upgrade a computer to Windows Vista, the upgrade option is not available. You may receive a message that resembles the following:

Upgrade has been disabled.

To upgrade to Windows, the hard disk partition must be formatted as NTFS. To reformat the partition, cancel the installation, open a Command Prompt window, and then type convert %1!c!: /fs:ntfs.



Steps to resolve the problem
To resolve this problem, follow these steps to convert the hard disk partition from the FAT32 file system to the NTFS file system.  Click Start, click Run, type cmd in the Open box, and then click OK. At the command prompt, type the following command:

convert :/FS:NTFS

In this command,  is the drive letter for the hard disk partition that you are trying to convert. This hard disk partition is the partition where you want to install Windows Vista.

For example, if you want to convert drive C so that you can install Vista, type the following command at the command prompt, and then press ENTER:

convert C:/FS:NTFS

Note When you press ENTER, you may receive a message that resembles the following:

Convert cannot gain exclusive access to the :, so it cannot convert it now. Would you like to schedule it to be converted the next time the system restarts (Y/N)?

If you receive this message, click Yes in the error message, and then restart the computer. The partition will be converted when the computer restarts. When the conversion is complete, try to upgrade the computer to Windows Vista again.



Similar problems and solutions
For more information about this issue and about how to convert a hard disk partition from the FAT32 file system to the NTFS file system, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

926069 You cannot select the Upgrade option when you try to install Windows Vista, and you receive the following message: &quot;Upgrade has been disabled&quot;

Keywords: kbupgrade kbtshoot kbprb kbexpertisebeginner kbceip KB933169

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