Any Problems with Changing exFAT to NTFS on Veracrypt Encrypted HDD?

[Brandon_Byrnes]

I want to defragment my Veracrypt encrypted HDD but Windows won’t let me because the file system is exfat, it says specifically file system type not supported. Will it mess anything up if I switch the file system to NTFS while I have the drive decrypted or do I have to fully decrypt it, switch it to NTFS then go through the long arduous process of re-encrypting a 2TB HDD? I’ve had the drive for about 3yrs and never defragmented it, it’s running pretty slow, taking a very long time to open folders and files. I know part of the reason for it running slow is because indexing isn’t enabled but I’m not going to enable indexing on an encrypted drive and I’m not sure if I can.

[Bruce]

changing file types will require the drive to be reformatted.
therefore make sure all your data is backed up first.
when you copy all the data back on, that’ll be the same as a defrag as the files will be moved/copied sequentially.

[Brandon_Byrnes]

okay good to know, I kind of figured that is what i would have to do. Looks like I’ll be doing that all day, lol.