Situation:
While imaging or modifying a partition, you see the message "Error 1681: Data is compressed or sparse, File <FRS number> (<number>). Click OK to cancel conversion."

Solution:
The cause of this problem has various solutions depending upon your situation:


If you are running Windows XP
When this error occurs on Windows XP, you can often fix the problem by disabling the Windows System Restore feature.

To disable System Restore

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. On the System Restore tab, check Turn off System Restore on all drives.
3. Click OK.

If you are running Windows NT/2000, or if disabling System Restore did not work
If the error occurs on Windows NT/2000, or if turning off System Restore in Windows XP does not solve the problem, perform the following procedure.

To uncompress files in the partition

1. In Windows, open a command prompt window.
2. Change to the root directory of the affected drive by typing the following at the command prompt (press Enter after each line), substituting the drive letter in the first line, if necessary:
   
   c:
   cd\
   
3. At the command prompt, type the following:
   
   compact /u /s /a /i /f *.*
   
   This command uncompresses all the files in the partition you run it on. Consequently, you should have ample free space in the partition to accommodate the larger file sizes. Also, depending on how many files are compressed, this process can be quite time consuming. If you need to abort the process at any point, simply press Ctrl+C inside the command prompt window.
   
4. After the process has finished, close the command prompt window.
5. Search for the file Ega.cpi.
   For detailed instructions on how to search for a file, see the References section.
6. When you find the file, right-click it, and then click Properties.
7. Click Advanced, and verify that the file is uncompressed.
   If the file is not uncompressed, uncheck Compress contents to save disk space, and then click OK.
   

You should now be able to perform the file system conversion without getting Error 1681.


If you still receive the error, try locating and uncompressing the particular file that is referenced in the error message by its FRS number (the first number that is not enclosed in parentheses).

To uncompress a specific file

1. Download BTIni.zip from the Symantec FTP site.
2. Unzip the contents of the file into a new folder.
3. Copy BTIni.exe to a blank floppy disk.
4. Boot to the PartitionMagic rescue disk 1.
5. When prompted for disk 2, insert the floppy disk that contains BTIni.exe, and then press Enter.
6. Press Ctrl+C to halt the rescue disk batch process.
7. At the command (A:\) prompt, type the following:
   
   btini /show
   
   This command displays the partition ID for the NTFS partition.
8. Enter the following command to obtain the file name that is associated with the FRS number referenced in the error message:
   
   btini /frs <partition ID of the NTFS partition>:<FRS number displayed in the error message>
   
   For example:
   
   btini /frs 1:395804
   
9. Reboot the computer to Windows.
10. Search for the file reported by BTIni.
    For detailed instructions on how to search for a file, see the References section.
11. When you find the file, right-click it, and then click Properties.
12. Click Advanced, and verify that the file is uncompressed.
    If the file is not uncompressed, uncheck Compress contents to save disk space, and then click OK.

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Note: You may also copy the file to another location and then delete it from its original location. After PartitionMagic has completed the conversion operation, you may then copy the file back to its original location.

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If Error 1681 is still reported after you have tried all the preceding steps, then reboot Windows, search for compressed files manually using Windows Explorer, and uncompress the files you find. For instructions on how to do this, please read Uncompressing files in Windows NT, 2000, and XP.

Technical Information:
There are compressed or sparse files on an NTFS file system that is being converted to FAT. Because FAT does not support sparse files and the compression technique that is used by Windows NT/2000/XP for the FAT file system is different than that used for NTFS, the compressed and sparse files would be unreadable if the conversion were performed.



References:
How to search for a file
To search for a file, follow the instructions for your version of Windows.

To search for a file in Windows 2000/NT

1. On the Windows taskbar, click Start > Find (or Search) > Files or Folders.
2. In the Search Results window, set Look in to (C:), and check Include subfolders.
3. In the Named or Search for box, type the file name.
4. Click Find Now or Search Now.

To search for a file in Windows XP

1. On the Windows taskbar, click Start > Search.
2. Click All files and folders.
3. In the All or part of the file name box, type the file name.
4. Verify that Look in is set to "Local Hard Drives" or to (C:).
5. Click More advanced options.
6. Check Search system folders, Search subfolders, and Search hidden files and folders.
7. Click Search.

For more information on using the BTINI utility, please read Editing the Boot.ini file using BTini.