Hard drive

[nanz1]

I have a 120g Western Digital hard drive and would like to format it to use for video capturing and editing. By the way its an external 2.0 usb. I would like to know the best way to format it for this purpose and basically how do I do that.Any suggestion would be appreciated!

[Dennis1968]

Is it a hermatically sealed USB 2.0 case? What OS are you running? 98SE? ME? 2000? XP home? XP Pro? FAT32 is limited to 4 gig files, NTFS is limted to what is left on the hard drive (format the 120 to NTFS and you can have up to a 110 gig video files).

[nanz1]

I bought the hard drive and an external enclosure for it and I am running Windows XP home edition. The hard drive right now is formatted at FAT32. How would I reformat it to NTFS?

[Innershield]

Download Partition Magic and it will do it for you at the click of the mouse.

[nanz1]

Where do I find that?

[Dennis1968]

You can also attach the hard drive to you motherboard. and use the adminstration tools "Start, Settings, Control Panel, Admin Tools, Computer Management, Storage, Disk Management" Highlight the Western Digital, right click, Format, change File System to NTFS.

[nanz1]

Thanks! I'll give that a try and report back when I'm done.

[nanz1]

Is it possible to run Windows XP on an internal hard drive as well as an external hard drive on the same computer?

[philly33flyers]

you don't have to take the hard drive out of your enclosure and put it in your computer physically in order to format it to NTFS. The information these people are giving you is completely wrong and too much work. All you have to do is plug it in, Firewire or USB, and then right click on My Computer, click on Manage, Go to Disk Management and notice that you external drive is listed there. right click it and choose format choosing NTFS as the file system. It's as simple as that no need to open up the enclosure or your computer case. That's just a waste of time.

[nanz1]

I wish I had known that earlier,just did it the hard way and now have run into another problem. I'm trying to install Windows XP and when I put in the install cd and it goes through the process of formating the hard drive and then it copies the files and then it goes to reboot. This is where I'm having the problem. It does not setup Windows XP it starts the whole process that it just did over again. It has done this many times. When I take the cd out and reboot, it say that it does not find an operating system. Then when I have tried to reinstall the cd and goes to the selected partion to install it to,it says that there is a windows program there already but when you reboot it says no operating system. HELP!!

[andkiich]

Why would you want to install the operating system on the external HDD?

[Hong Kong Phooey]

Are you trying to install Windows XP onto the external HDD? Chances are Windows is probably trying to find the "new" install on your main internal system drive & is getting confused about what XP version its booting up. You'll have to go into Safe mode/Recovery console to sort that side of things out.

[ridergroov]

boot to your xp disk, then delete all your partitions, create new ones and format with ntfs...very simple task....but dont' install your OS to your external drive if you have that option, that's just not a good idea....

[vance43211]

go get partition magic

install it on you computer


after install

open partition magic

delete the info on the external hard drive

than reformat that drive as a NTSC data storage drive

philly33flyers idea was a good one,

but since you messed up the hard drive before he posted,

partition magic is a simpler way to fix your mess,

because one mistake with the XP cd and you will have no data on either hard drives

http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/

[ridergroov]

first off, you don't need Partition Magic for any of this stuff....secondly, NTSC is NOT a file system, you want NTFS....if you formatted a drive with FAT32, just go to your command line and type convert drive letter name: /fs:NTFS.....where drive letter name is the drive letter of the drive you want to convert....it will prompt you to reboot, after the reboot, you will have a NTFS drive...remember though, you cant' go back to FAT32 after the transfer....forget all this partition magic crap...[/i]

[Gazorgan]

To boot to an external drive, you have to have BIOS that supports booting to USB devices. This is generally a bad idea, particuallary from a speed issue (I know USB 2.0 is fast, but take the drive out and plug it into an IDE cable and it's faster in every benchmark ever done).

[vance43211]

first off

partition magic is the best best choice for beginners (people first time partitioning a hard drive(s) )

as i seen people seroiusly mess up their computers and deleting their important data on their previous drive, when trying to do it the way you describe

you can do it your way

but to a lot of people (not you and me), that way is too complicated

partition magic was design for the average joe

and nanz1 probably doesn't want to go through the trouble of wiping both of his hard drives clean and starting all over as he problably has important data on his first hard drive

partition magic does everything in a very simple way

[Conquest10]

he never said anything about wiping out both drives. he just told him how to format the external drive to ntfs.

[vance43211]

boot to your xp disk, then delete all your partitions, create new ones and format with ntfs...very simple task....but dont' install your OS to your external drive if you have that option, that's just not a good idea....

read Conquest10

i was actually telling ridergroove that nanz1 problably didn't want to delete all of his partitions

[ridergroov]

alright, i did say actually to wipe out the drives and i guess i was speaking to the writer at a higher level than he probably is at, no offense to him.....but yeah i guess partition magic would be the way to go if you want to fix things easy for the average joe.....thanks for sticking up for me gumby, but i did say that before..personally i think it's good to wipe everything out once and awhile anyway...buit that's up to the user......lets' stop fighting amongst ourselves and just use fdisk

[Dennis1968]

philly33flyers, Nobody is wrong and the data they give can be used by different people with different computer skills. What you consider hard way and wrong might be a more solid solution for someone else. Just allow the people to see all the choices and then let them decide.

I have install XP Pro over a non bootable hard drive with vaulable data. , I can not understand what his instalation limitation is. I started with Windows 95a and NT 3.51. used all the OSes in between esxcept ME.

Does nantz have a XP Home OEM version? A HP/ Dell/ Gateway version? A off the shelf version?

sounds like NTLoader is missing off of drive C. If he can use a boot disc and see the document and serttings folder and his windows directory, then he can try to throw on NTLoader from his XP CD.

[philly33flyers]

ridergroov is right. a simple command will convert your drive from fat to ntfs. even your average joe know nothing about computers could do that.

But the poster originally simply asked how to format a drive in his firewire enclosure and these people started giving him all these weird and long process solutions out of nowhere.

1) why download software to simply format a drive? it's built into every operating system to format
2) why take it out of the enclosure to format? that's just a waste of 30 minutes, no speed improvement, and worthless for JUST formatting
3) if the question did arise that he wanted to take his original OS drive and make it to NTFS then yes partition magic would be an ideal choice for a newbie but that question wasn't even asked.

why give all these suggestions out of left field and make this guys simple job harder than it needs to be? he's already having a tough time that's why he posted here for help and most of you, not all, are just making things more difficult for him with all these long processes that you would need a checklist to work with. Formatting is a 1 step process. NOT 5. Converting FAT to NTFS is a 2 step process max. but he didn't even ask that.

[philly33flyers]

philly33flyers, Nobody is wrong and the data they give can be used by different people with different computer skills. What you consider hard way and wrong might be a more solid solution for someone else. Just allow the people to see all the choices and then let them decide.

I have install XP Pro over a non bootable hard drive with vaulable data. , I can not understand what his instalation limitation is. I started with Windows 95a and NT 3.51. used all the OSes in between esxcept ME.

Does nantz have a XP Home OEM version? A HP/ Dell/ Gateway version? A off the shelf version?

sounds like NTLoader is missing off of drive C. If he can use a boot disc and see the document and serttings folder and his windows directory, then he can try to throw on NTLoader from his XP CD.

you asked him if it was a sealed external drive as if that was an issue. it's not! a hard drive is a hard drive is a hard drive, whether it's sealed in a enclosure, in your own openable enclosure, or in your computer physically.

you then went on to suggest as a 2nd option to someone else's suggestion of partition magic that he take the drive out of his enclosure and then put it in his computer to format. why??? that's not an efficient soution. that's like taking the straight path from NJ to NY vs. going in a circle from NJ down around the entire US and ending up in NY. that whole step inbetween is useless. especially for the average person who's having a hard time formatting as it is. simple solutions work better. partion magic if partitioning or converting of drives is requried. or just the OS itself if just formatting is involved. No need for long thought out processes. Save that for the design of your elaborate rope and pully system.

[vance43211]

the reason i told him to use parttition magic was

about a little over a year ago i was reading on this site about how to change my fat32 drive to NTSC

well i follow the person's instruction to a T , but they had obviosly left something out (probably something simple to them)

i don't even remember what it was, but i remember i jack my harddrive up and couldn't boot up

i had to reformat it (which i did as a ntsc drive)

i was mad as i lost lot of important info

well about a month later i was reading in a computer book
about partitioning harddrives and they stated numerous way to do it,
but they recommended that beginners use partition magic as it was so simple

well i just happen to have the software, it came with some other stuff that i had brought and i didn't know what it was (i had found it looking for some other software)

well i installed it . and it was so simple to use.

it converted drives , partition them, seperate stuff, etc

well since them i have use it 5 different time to fix people hard drives, from which they had tried to convert fats32 to ntsc

i also use it for people whom want to add extra hard drives to their systems

i just wish somebody would have gave me that advice last year
as i had made a mess of my system

with partition magic you have less of a chance to mess up your system
as it ask you are you sure you want to do this

[vance43211]

But the poster originally simply asked how to format a drive in his firewire enclosure and these people started giving him all these weird and long process solutions out of nowhere.

well it seems he got into a little trouble after formatting his drive. and if he had went with the 1st response he wouldn't be having this problem

Download Partition Magic and it will do it for you at the click of the mouse.

Formatting is a 1 step process. NOT 5. Converting FAT to NTFS is a 2 step process max. but he didn't even ask that.

you are right. but fixing his particular problem is not

nanz1 quote

I wish I had known that earlier,just did it the hard way and now have run into another problem. I'm trying to install Windows XP and when I put in the install cd and it goes through the process of formating the hard drive and then it copies the files and then it goes to reboot. This is where I'm having the problem. It does not setup Windows XP it starts the whole process that it just did over again. It has done this many times. When I take the cd out and reboot, it say that it does not find an operating system. Then when I have tried to reinstall the cd and goes to the selected partion to install it to,it says that there is a windows program there already but when you reboot it says no operating system. HELP!!

since he was already in trouble, i was merely explaining the getting partition magic is the easiest way to to fix his problem. and keep his data

if he boots from the xp cd, there is a chance that he can erase everything if he is not careful

which by the way, he did ask for help

[Dennis1968]

People need to read closer, the original post said USB 2.0 not Firewire

Update a hard drive is not a hard drive. a IDE harddrive in a OEM case act differently than a Hermatically sealed (USB or Firewire).

2000 and XP has trouble during the initail format stage becase of the drivers and bios of the OEM case. All OEM cases regardless of name and manufacture, will NOT format properly when placed in the case first.

Hermatically sealed drives do not have this problem.

[thayne]

2000 and XP has trouble during the initail format stage becase of the drivers and bios of the OEM case. All OEM cases regardless of name and manufacture, will NOT format properly when placed in the case first.

That's non-sense. There is no differnce.... I have formatted several drive in firewire cases and never had a problem.

[binks120]

man did you all ever loose the newbie that asked the q.
second pm is dangerouse in the wrong hands as its too easy to make mistakes trust me i have to recover my bros all the time
third is he dual booting and thus why he needs to boot from ext drive
forth i agree dont boot from ext drive dont do it
5 he never asked if he could boot from this in origanal post he only use it for capture/edit so the right click mycomp is easiest way
6 my preech not everyone is at your level dont complicate things
7 oh and when the whole thing starts again ie the install of xp its cos you didnt remove the xp disc from the drive on reboot when prompted

[Doggiedaddy]

Very, VERY simple and the best video file system IMHO.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/itpro/managing/convertfat.asp

[philly33flyers]

People need to read closer, the original post said USB 2.0 not Firewire

Update a hard drive is not a hard drive. a IDE harddrive in a OEM case act differently than a Hermatically sealed (USB or Firewire).

2000 and XP has trouble during the initail format stage becase of the drivers and bios of the OEM case. All OEM cases regardless of name and manufacture, will NOT format properly when placed in the case first.

Hermatically sealed drives do not have this problem.

you're full of it. you just can't admit that your process was fine if he wanted to spend 30 extra minutes doing it but a hard drive is still a hard drive. i've formatted many usb and firewire drives hooked up to an external enclosure that i bought myself. how is that any different than purchasing an external drive that's sealed? do they put software on the drive itself so that it can be read by windows and formatted? of course not. what they do is put a hard drive in the same kind of enclosure as any other person would and it's that simple. so A HARD DRIVE IS A HARD DRIVE no matter what it's in it can be formatted through USB, Firewire, IDE on the motherboard. you're just full of crap. and i believe thayne will agree with me.