Hard Drive Question

[Robert Barnett]

Hello,

I just added two new 1TB My Book external USB 2.0 hard drives to my system.
They come formatted and partitioned, but it is formatted FAT32, all of my
other drivers are NTFS and so I went in to the Windows Vista disk management
tool (sorry I don't remember what it is actually called but it allows you to
see all of your drives, partitions, etc.) to do a quick format to NTFS.
However, it seems to be taking hours to do this.

I am guessing and this is my question. Am I right in assuming that the
reason this is not a quick format is because it is having to do a full
format in order to convert the drive from FAT32 to NTFS? How long should it
take to format a 1TB drive?

Thanks,

Robert

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You need to delete the existing FAT32 partition,
then create a new partition, then format the partition
NTFS. This will speed things up quite a bit.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience -
Windows Vista Enthusiast

---------------------------------------------------------------

Hello,

I just added two new 1TB My Book external USB 2.0 hard drives to my system.
They come formatted and partitioned, but it is formatted FAT32, all of my
other drivers are NTFS and so I went in to the Windows Vista disk management
tool (sorry I don't remember what it is actually called but it allows you to
see all of your drives, partitions, etc.) to do a quick format to NTFS.
However, it seems to be taking hours to do this.

I am guessing and this is my question. Am I right in assuming that the
reason this is not a quick format is because it is having to do a full
format in order to convert the drive from FAT32 to NTFS? How long should it
take to format a 1TB drive?

Thanks,

Robert

 

[Bender]

You could have use the 'convert' command. No formatting required. I also
have a 1TB My Book. I don't actually remember if it came as fat32, but its
NTFS now and if I was the one who changed it, I used the convert command
(from a command prompt window or whatever its called).
Since I use my drive to store recorded TV shows, the format has to be NTFS
if the show exceeds 4GB in size, which happens a lot.

I recently formatted a 300 GB drive, and that seemed to take a very long
time, so 1,000 GB should take a very long time as well.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

In addition to Carey's remark, you will only need to perform a quick format.
If you are doing a full format on a 1TB drive of course it is taking hours
and hours and hours.

 

[Robert Barnett]

Well following the MVP suggestions I deleted the partions and the recreated
them as NTFS and then did a format. The problem is the format after 12 hours
is still going at least according the Vista "Administrative Tools > Computer
Management > Disk Managment" option. Something is wrong. I don't think it
should take this long, plus the activity light on the drive remains solid,
instead of flashing which would indicate the drive is in use. I am also
unhappy that Microsoft doesn't bother to give any feed back on how far along
the process is.

Any suggestions on how to get these drives partitioned and formatted to NTSF
that will work. Apparently Microsoft's utility isn't going to do it. God I
miss fdisk and format in DOS. Help anyone?

Robert

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

A further thought: I have had one drive that took forever to format and I
had it tested in a shop. It turned out to be a bad drive. That would not
happen with two new drives however. Mine was an old laptop drive. Again,
just do a quick format. There should be no reason to do a full format on a
new drive.

 

[Bender]

Diskpart is the new fdisk.

 

[Robert Barnett]

Well, I never did get anything that came with Vista to work with the drives.
Total crap. I had not trouble, infact it took less than 2 minutes to
repartition and format three drives, two 1TB and one 500GB one using
Acronis's drive managment product. Once again, Microsoft crap can't do the
job.

Robert

 

[Nonny]

Well, I never did get anything that came with Vista to work with the drives.
Total crap. I had not trouble, infact it took less than 2 minutes to
repartition and format three drives, two 1TB and one 500GB one using
Acronis's drive managment product. Once again, Microsoft crap can't do the
job.

In case you haven't tried yet, Vista won't microwave your dinner
either.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

No, but the other way around is true.

My wife uses her Vista laptop in a location that happens to be a few feet
beyond the microwave in line with our wireless router on the other side some
25 feet away. In other words, the mw oven is between the two. When she
microwaves she loses connectivity with the router. So what does she always
try to do while she's waiting for the mw to finish? Check her email, of
course. It never fails and she always slaps her forhead. It is a source of
humor in our house.

 

[Robert Barnett]

I wouldn't expect it to microwave anything. But I would expect the disk
management program that comes with it to actually work. I don't think that
is too much to ask for, smart ass!

Robert

 

[Bender]

That's why Wireless N was developed. But you probably already Knew that.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Yeah. The laptop has n but the router is older and doesn't. When doscis 3
becomes available here I plan on upgrading both router and cable modem.