Confusion about Drive Overlay software for WD HDD vs. using Win XP to partition and format an intern

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

I got a WD 160 GB HDD (internal) that I put into an enclosure for USB 2.0. I
haven't plugged the drive into the computer yet. I want to be able to use this
drive on up to 3 different computers to copy backup image files to (after they
were already made into image files on the original internal HDD's). This means I
have to have the drive cope with 3 different OS's (Win XP, Win Me, and Win
98SE). I want to create five 32 GB partitions (how many MB's is that?), and have
4 of them to be FAT 32 and the last one to be NTFS (for larger file sizes over
4GB that are burnable to DVD).

Should I use Win XP to partition and format this USB type of drive? Should I use
the DOS format tools from the hard drive manufacturer and format it from Win Me
or Win 98SE? There is a Drive Overlay feature in the DOS tools that should be on
the CD that came with the drive, and that might get my drive recognized with the
older OS's. But if the last partition is going to be NTFS: Win 98SE and Win Me
aren't going to care about that last partition anyway...they will just recognize
128 GB worth of drive on four FAT 32 partitions. If my older Win 98SE machine
won't recognize drives over 60 GB, which I don't know if it does or not (PII,
350 Mhz, 1999 vintage), should I make the second partition 28 GB so the total of
the first two partitions is not over 60 GB? Will it hurt the drive if I don't
have it recognize the last 100 GB this way?

There is no PCI controller card in any of these machines yet: one computer may
get a card this week, but two internal dual boot HDD's (Win Me with Win XP) are
going to be hooked up to it..so there won't necessarily be room to run this once
through on a PCI card. I hope the WD overlay software can counteract the need to
buy more PCI controller cards. (PS: I hate DOS.)

 

[Richard Urban [MVP]]

Please partition and format your hard drive using the Windows XP disk
management utility. You can have a maximum of 32 gig for fat32 partitions.
For NTFS partitions you can have up to the size of the drive. Windows XP
does not like drive overlay programs on hard drives and you may have
problems by using them.

If you need a fat32 partition larger than 32 gig you have to use a program
such as Partition Magic to create the partition.


--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

 

[Ron Sommer]

Your 160 GB drive is actually 148 GB.
You could have four 32 GB partitions and one 22 GB partition.

Do not use the drive overlay software.
48 bit LBA has to be used for a drive of this size.
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/over_DDO.htm
http://www.48bitlba.com/issues.htm

 

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

http://www.48bitlba.com/usbharddrives.htm