Elementary external HD question

Tom Ames · #1 06-06-2007, 04:02 PM

I just installed an external hard-drive. PC recognizes it and indicates the capacity is 149GB with 149GB free space and 32KB of used space. Do I need to format or anything before I start using it or is it ready to go out of the box?

Please keep in mind that everything I know about computers I've learned from the CTH forum in the past couple of years. And while I'm at it, thanks to everyone who contributes here as your posts often help more people than those who pose the specific question that you're responding to.

kerowo · #2 06-06-2007, 04:37 PM

If Explorer can see it you are good to go. If you want to get fancy you can re-format it as NTFS which is better than FAT but it wouldn't be the end of the world if you didn't.

Tom Ames · #3 06-06-2007, 07:20 PM

[ QUOTE ]
If Explorer can see it you are good to go. If you want to get fancy you can re-format it as NTFS which is better than FAT but it wouldn't be the end of the world if you didn't.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re-formatting completed. I obviously don't need much encouragement to tackle something that I don't understand very well [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

Thanks a bunch, kerowo.

CT11 · #4 06-07-2007, 04:54 AM

hmm maybe its too late now but if its an external HDD its probably best kept as FAT32 for compatibility reasons.

Suppose you want to take it to your friends house who's got win 98 or ME or maybe a linux or mac user. A linux or OSX user would be able to read a NTFS HDD but not write. Last I checked, which I admit was a while ago, there was some legal reason why the NTFS could only be written to by MS OSs.

If you only know windows NT, 2k, XP people or never plan on moving the HDD then you're probably fine and NFTS is better.

kerowo · #5 06-07-2007, 08:10 AM

I can read/write my NTFS external drive with Mac OS X and XP. If your friend is still running 98 mock him.

Tom Ames · #6 06-07-2007, 01:15 PM

CT11, thanks for the input. I anticipate only using the HDD with my PC and possibly my laptop which both have XP. After reading kerowo's initial reply, I did check to see whether my PC had FAT or NTFS prior to re-formatting my HDD. After seeing that my PC had NTFS, I felt pretty confident that re-formatting my HDD would be better in my situation. Thanks again.