Reformat an External Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael Hobbs
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Michael Hobbs

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?
 
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.
Click to expand...

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,
Click to expand...

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

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

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