Re: reformatting external USB drive


"Lil' Dave" <spamyourself@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e8hcwYV0IHA.4492@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Jo-Anne Naples" <naples@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23VO92uN0IHA.2208@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I recently bought two external USB drives for backing up the internal hard
drive on my Windows XP SP3 computer. I also bought Acronis True Image 11
Home to do the backups. I thought that when the program did its first
backup, it would reformat the external drive from FAT32 to NTFS. However,
it didn't. I asked on the Acronis forum and was told the program doesn't
reformat drives but that it might be a good idea to do so myself; I was
also told that this reformat won't affect data on the drive.

Should I do the reformat? If so, how do I do it? (If you could point me
to a website offering this information, that would be wonderful.)

Thank you!

Jo-Anne


Just some tech jargon info to add to what's been said alredy in reply.
The partition contains the file table information and that file table is
the format, whether FAT32 or NTFS. Normally, with standard partitioning
tools, you have to remove the partition and create a new one with a file
table appropriate to what you want. XP has a converter to get around that
for FAT32 to NTFS. If you're starting with a blank hard drive, no files,
you might as well just do it the old way in XP's disk management. This
will map out any bad areas during the process. Converting tool in XP does
not.

Since you have 2 large hard drives, I would consider using one for an
imaging target. The other, I would use as a monthly clone target, leaving
disconnected/off otherwise. If your onboard hard drive fails, you can
toss in the clone for quick recovery. If that fails, you can wipe the
clone with TI, and restore your latest image to that hard drive.
--
Dave

Thank you, Dave! You've put it very clearly. One more question: If I can
clone to my hard drive (and I'm not sure if Acronis True Image does that), I
assume I'd have to take it out of the case to put it into the
computer--right? That doesn't look possible with the two drives I bought (WD
Passport).

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne


.

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