Asking the experts - WD 500G External

[nalayar]

This drive isn't new, but something happened (long story but it
involved connecting two USB printers with card readers), and it
doesn't seem to want to format, although it's recognized in Windows.
I couldn't get the WD External Fat 32 Format utility to install on my
Vista computer, but I used my wife's laptop which is running XP and it
installed fine.

I hooked up the external drive to the laptop's USB port, and ran the
program, and it saw the drive, and I checked the Restore to Fat32
format option and it started to format.

Hurray I thought, but not even a quarter way through, it stopped with
a "Can't Copy Drive Image" error.

Of course that error is not in WD Knowledge Base. What does formatting
have to do with copying a drive image...isn't that for making a
backup?

Is this drive hosed?

Thank you.

 

[Arno Wagner]

you can't format a 500Gb drive to FAT32.

That is untrue. mkdosfs under Linux will happily do it.
However, looking it up, it seems that while MS OSes
can use FAT32 partitions in this size, the brain-damaged
utilities by Microsoft cannot format FAT32 for partitions
larger than 32GB.

Arno

 

[nalayar]

That is untrue. mkdosfs under Linux will happily do it.
However, looking it up, it seems that while MS OSes
can use FAT32 partitions in this size, the brain-damaged
utilities by Microsoft cannot format FAT32 for partitions
larger than 32GB.

Arno

I hooked it up to my wife's laptop which is running XP. Only then was
I able to install the WD Fat32 formatter. I ran the formatter on my
wife's laptop which is running XP, and a quarter way through received
the "Can't Copy Drive Image" message, and formatting stopped.

Why is it so important to format these external drives with Fat32 and
not NTFS? And is it true once they're formatted in NTFS, it's
impossible to format them in Fat32?

Thanks to all who replied.

Al

 

[Arno Wagner]

That is untrue. mkdosfs under Linux will happily do it.
However, looking it up, it seems that while MS OSes
can use FAT32 partitions in this size, the brain-damaged
utilities by Microsoft cannot format FAT32 for partitions
larger than 32GB.

Arno

I hooked it up to my wife's laptop which is running XP. Only then was
I able to install the WD Fat32 formatter. I ran the formatter on my
wife's laptop which is running XP, and a quarter way through received
the "Can't Copy Drive Image" message, and formatting stopped.[/QUOTE]

Why is it so important to format these external drives with Fat32 and
not NTFS?

Well, NTFS is non-portable, i.e. you cannot use the drive on a
MAC, under Linux or with other OSes.

And is it true once they're formatted in NTFS, it's
impossible to format them in Fat32?

You can format FAT32 again, but you cannot convert. You can convert
FAT32 to NTFS without (if you are lucky) losing data.

Arno

 

[Piergiorgio Sartor]

Well, NTFS is non-portable, i.e. you cannot use the drive on a
MAC, under Linux or with other OSes.

Well, the latest "ntfs-3g" under linux seems to work quite fine.
I use it regularly with no problems, until now, at least.

bye,

 

[Arno Wagner]

Arno Wagner wrote:

Well, the latest "ntfs-3g" under linux seems to work quite fine.
I use it regularly with no problems, until now, at least.

Good to know. My last experiment, done remotely via a friend,
resulted in files visible under Linux but not under Windows.

Arno

 

[Rod Speed]

I hooked it up to my wife's laptop which is running XP. Only then was
I able to install the WD Fat32 formatter. I ran the formatter on my
wife's laptop which is running XP, and a quarter way through received
the "Can't Copy Drive Image" message, and formatting stopped.

Why is it so important to format these external drives with Fat32 and not NTFS?

FAT32 support is better with other OSs.

OTOH FAT32 doesnt support the biggest files at all.

And is it true once they're formatted in NTFS, it's impossible to format them in Fat32?

Nope. You cant reformat without loss of data, thats like what you have mangled.