Reformat an External Drive

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

I have a new WD 80 gig external drive. I am not seeing on the data sheet
what it is formatted under but I suspect something like FAT32. This disk
will be used only with machines running XP-P. I am wondering if I should
format the drive under NTFS, can anyone offer advice?

--
mdhobbs@qwest.net

Michael Hobbs
Minneapolis, Minnesota

 

[Mel]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

On Tue, 17 May 2005 20:29:48 -0500, "Michael Hobbs" <mdhobbs@qwest.net>
wrote:

>I have a new WD 80 gig external drive. I am not seeing on the data sheet
>what it is formatted under but I suspect something like FAT32. This disk
>will be used only with machines running XP-P. I am wondering if I should
>format the drive under NTFS, can anyone offer advice?

go to Explorer and right click on the drive. Select PROPERTIES.

This will show you which file system the drive was formatted for.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

Michael Hobbs <mdhobbs@qwest.net> wrote in
message news:eUwie.37$x9.3451@news.uswest.net...

> I have a new WD 80 gig external drive. I am not seeing on the data sheet what
> it is formatted under but I suspect something like FAT32.

XP should be able to tell you how its formatted.

> This disk will be used only with machines running XP-P. I am wondering if I
> should format the drive under NTFS,

That has some advantages, particularly not being limited to 2/4G files.

> can anyone offer advice?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

Hi,

It depends on what is your need. Do you want dual booting, i,e. having
two operating systems installed on different partitions or not?
If not, then I would say that its better to have NTFS. Since its a new
drive then its definately FAT32 formatted.
NTFS because it will help you to save more disk space,
Your files will be more secured, You can assign both file and folder
level security.

Bye........