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Geek Culture / Setting Up An External Hard Drive.... Help Please

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The Lone Programmer
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2006 18:20
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Hey,
I just bought a new SATA II hard drive to swap with my ATA 133 hard drive. I also bought an ATA external hard drive enclosure. My ATA 133 hard drive is 250GB in size.

I am concerned about how to set up the external drive properly. Not so much assembling it, but formatting it. I have read that Windows ME and below can only recognize FAT32 and lower, while Windows 2000 and higher can recognize all the FAT's and NTFS. I also read that if you format a drive as a FAT, then it will not recognize a storage capacity of 160GB or higher. So my 250GB drive will max out at 160GB if I format it as a FAT format.

What do I do to solve my problem? I was reading around on google and people were talking about how they needed to format various partitions onto their hard drive to do such a thing.

Am I able to do like:
> Make a 125GB FAT32 Partition
> Make a 125GB NTFS Partition

Is it possible to format a hard drive with two different file systems? If I were to do that, in theory should Windows ME recognize the FAT32 partition while Windows XP recognizes them both? Maybe Windows ME would recognize the FAT32 partition, but would it be able to write to it? Would Windows XP be able to write to both partitions?

I have a large variety of computers in my house with like all the different operating systems. I would like my external drive to be able to work with all of them if that is possible.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
The Lone Programmer

"Is The Juice Worth The Squeeze"
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Chenak
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2006 19:03
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Why not just use NTFS? Would make things a lot easier. If you use windows me... burn it, then throw it out of the nearest window

I'm not sure but I think you can have the two on separate partitions and it will work absolutely fine. It's just... why would you want to?
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IanG
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2006 19:09
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Quote: "Am I able to do like:
> Make a 125GB FAT32 Partition
> Make a 125GB NTFS Partition"


yep you can - you could even have 2 fat32 partitions of 125gb

Quote: "Is it possible to format a hard drive with two different file systems? If I were to do that, in theory should Windows ME recognize the FAT32 partition while Windows XP recognizes them both? Maybe Windows ME would recognize the FAT32 partition, but would it be able to write to it? Would Windows XP be able to write to both partitions?"

Yes
Yep - xp will see both, me will just see fat, and prob complain about the rest needing to be formatted
me would be able to write to the fat32 side if the other was ntfs
yep xp would be able to write to everything

Quote: "I have a large variety of computers in my house with like all the different operating systems. I would like my external drive to be able to work with all of them if that is possible."

then don't use ntfs, linux can read ntfs but can not write to it and macs can't read it afaik

so i would suggest two fat32 partitions of 125gigs each, and i would probably use a tool like gparted's live cd to do it as i have heard a lot of good stuff about, but i've never needed to use it, but hey thet link for you is http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php use the live cd as its easier - all you do is stick it into your computer with the drive connected, and boot from the disc - it might need you to have it directly plugged into your sata connection rather than the usb one


amd athlon xp 2600+,1280mb,FX 5200 128mb,200gb & 120gb,xp pro sp2
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Kendor
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2006 19:10 Edited at: 23rd Jul 2006 19:11
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Quote: "Is it possible to format a hard drive with two different file systems?"


Yes

Quote: "Windows ME recognize the FAT32 partition while Windows XP recognizes them both"

Correct

Quote: "Would Windows XP be able to write to both partitions?"

Yes

Quote: "Am I able to do like:
> Make a 125GB FAT32 Partition
> Make a 125GB NTFS Partition
"


Yes you can make multiple partitions on a single drive. The only limitation is the FAT32 maximum partition size

Taken from http://www.theeldergeek.com/ntfs_or_fat32_file_system.htm

In Windows XP, the maximum partition size that can be created using FAT32 is 32GB. This increases to 16TB (terabytes) using NTFS. There is a workaround for the 32GB limitation under FAT32, but it is a nuisance especially considering the size of drives currently being manufactured

[Edit] need to type faster, beaten for 1 min [/edit]

Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog.
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The Lone Programmer
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2006 19:53
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Kendor
I don't find what you just said about the partition size of a FAT32 to be correct. I have a computer with Windows ME with an 80GB hard drive and it recognizes it perfectly. Windows ME works from FAT32. So I don't know where your coming from with the whole 32GB thing. That link seems rather wrong.



As far as everything else. Provided I can actually have the 125GB partition size I think I am going to do two FAT32 partitions. Can I just do this in MMC? I don't really want to burn any more of these Linux Live CDs to do my jobs, because I find them rather hard to use. Last I checked, MMC could work with partitions. Don't know if it can do what I want though.


The Lone Programmer

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the_winch
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2006 22:13
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Microsoft crippled the drive format tool in 2k and xp so it will only format fat32 upto 32gb.
Not really a problem if you have a previous windows version. Plus there are quite a few free tools that will do it if you don't.

By way of demonstration, he emitted a batlike squeak that was indeed bothersome.
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Kendor
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2006 22:50
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As stated by the_winch, the link was referring to partioning using the WinXP partitioner. In this case it is irrelevant. My bad, sorry

Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog.
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The Lone Programmer
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Posted: 24th Jul 2006 03:13
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I understand you now Kendor

I also did some more reading and I found out some things I did not care for. I did not know that a FAT32 partition can only accept file sizes of 4GB and less. That is no good.

So I think I made my decision that I am going to format half FAT32 and half NTFS. That way I can do whatever I choose on my primary computer (XP) and occasionally back stuff up on my other computer (ME).

Now I just have to find a good tool to do such a job. I looked at GParted, but it looks rather complicated. I couldn't make out if I needed to download extra files in order to get the job done, or just the one file.

Maybe other people know of some better partitioners?


Thanks,
The Lone Programmer

"Is The Juice Worth The Squeeze"
-The Girl Next Door
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The Real 87
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Posted: 24th Jul 2006 14:37
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ok ok. Have no fear I am here to help.

When you are setting up an HD you need to have the instructions, I whiped some up for your HD and saved them in peg format (it seemed easier that way). Their attached.

Thank me later.

http://www.the-real-87.com

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The Real 87
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Posted: 24th Jul 2006 14:38
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I am now saying sorry for being a d*ck in that last post. I'm just tired and this is how I make my network diagrams for A+ class.

http://www.the-real-87.com
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The Lone Programmer
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Posted: 24th Jul 2006 18:41
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The Real 87
Nice try, but that is not what I needed. I know how to install it. Setting it up is where I become lost. So actually getting it hooked up I am fine. I didn't notice a bad attitude. Maybe you are imagining things .


I appreciate the help guys.


The Lone Programmer

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