How to erase a USB drive without formatting?

[Guest]

Hello Everyone,

I am wondering how I can erase a large USB external hard drive without
formatting it. I don't want to format the drive because it is fat32 and I am
running XP. I want to keep the drive fat32 so it works with my wireless
router. Any way I use this drive to back up my Laptop and Desktop computer
and from time to time I like to delete all the data on this drive and do a
fresh backup. Can someone please tell me a quick way to erase this drive
without using Format? Any help will be deeply appreciated. If possible I
would like to do this without having to buy anymore software, money getting
tight.

Thank you!
Sincerely,
Jim

 

[Test User]

Hello Everyone,

I am wondering how I can erase a large USB external hard drive without
formatting it. I don't want to format the drive because it is fat32 and I am
running XP. I want to keep the drive fat32 so it works with my wireless
router. Any way I use this drive to back up my Laptop and Desktop computer
and from time to time I like to delete all the data on this drive and do a
fresh backup. Can someone please tell me a quick way to erase this drive
without using Format? Any help will be deeply appreciated. If possible I
would like to do this without having to buy anymore software, money getting
tight.

Thank you!
Sincerely,
Jim

Open it in Explorer, choose Edit/select all, and press the delete key?
Just make sure that no sub-folders are displayed (and so in use by Windows).

HTH
-pk

 

[Bob I]

Select All, Delete.

 

[Guest]

Hi Bob & HTH,

Thank you for answering my posting. I guess I should have said that I have
been deleteing the drive as you stated. It just takes so long that way
because of the amont of files on it. Plus you have to sit there and watch it
because from time to time a window will pop up that you have to acknowledge.
I was hoping there was a better and faster way.

Thanks again,
Jim

 

[Test User]

Hi Bob & HTH,

Thank you for answering my posting. I guess I should have said that I have
been deleteing the drive as you stated. It just takes so long that way
because of the amont of files on it. Plus you have to sit there and watch it
because from time to time a window will pop up that you have to acknowledge.
I was hoping there was a better and faster way.

Thanks again,
Jim

Actually I'm not sure I understand why you need to have the drive as FAT32
unless it is directly accessed by (connected to) a Win9x machine, in which
case you could simply format it with that. If the drive is connected to
the XP box and is being accessed by other network devices, XP will handle
the the requests; the requesting machine won't know or care what the format
type is.

In any case, pop out to a command prompt and type del /? for the commandline
parameters. You could write a simple cmd file using the /q switch, for
example.

HTH
-pk

 

[Guest]

Hi HTH,
Thank you for telling me another way to delete the files on my USB drive.
I will try this way and see how it works. I do have on question though. You
told me to type del /?. I replace the ? with the drive letter right?
Example: "del /E:"

The reason the drive has to stay fat32 is so I can write to the drive when
it is connected to my NetGear wireless router. The router can read NTFS
drives, but you can't write to it. After backing up my compter I hook the USB
drive to the router so I can save files to it as I go. The advantage of
having the USB drive hooked to the router is I don't have to have both
computers running.

Thank you so much!
Take care,
Jim

 

[Rock]

Hi HTH,
Thank you for telling me another way to delete the files on my USB drive.
I will try this way and see how it works. I do have on question though. You
told me to type del /?. I replace the ? with the drive letter right?
Example: "del /E:"

No that's not what he meant. At a command line type del /? to see a
list of options and switches to use with the del command. One of those
switches might allow you to bypass the messages you're getting, but I
don't think you can bypass all messages.

 

[Guest]

Hi Rock,

Thank you for explaining the ? to me. I am glad I didn't get a chance to
try out what I thought. I would not of known what I was doing wrong.

So I guess I am stuck deleting the drive the way I am?

Thanks everyone!!
Take care,
Jim

 

[Test User]

Hi HTH,
Thank you for telling me another way to delete the files on my USB drive.
I will try this way and see how it works. I do have on question though. You
told me to type del /?. I replace the ? with the drive letter right?
Example: "del /E:"

No. The /? switch is to give you the "help" (such as it is) for the
command. It works for most command-line tools.


HTH
-pk

 

[Test User]

Hi Rock,

Thank you for explaining the ? to me. I am glad I didn't get a chance to
try out what I thought. I would not of known what I was doing wrong.

So I guess I am stuck deleting the drive the way I am?

Thanks everyone!!
Take care,
Jim

========================
Below is the results. I'd suggest that something like this would work:

del x:\*.* /F /Q

the /F in case there are read-only files, the /Q to suppress messages. You
might need /S as well.

Shouldn't take you long to test.

=========================
C:\Documents and Settings\Test User >del /?
Deletes one or more files.

DEL [/P] [/F] [/S] [/Q] [/A[[:]attributes]] names
ERASE [/P] [/F] [/S] [/Q] [/A[[:]attributes]] names

names Specifies a list of one or more files or directories.
Wildcards may be used to delete multiple files. If a
directory is specified, all files within the directory
will be deleted.

/P Prompts for confirmation before deleting each file.
/F Force deleting of read-only files.
/S Delete specified files from all subdirectories.
/Q Quiet mode, do not ask if ok to delete on global wildcard
/A Selects files to delete based on attributes
attributes R Read-only files S System files
H Hidden files A Files ready for archivin
- Prefix meaning not

If Command Extensions are enabled DEL and ERASE change as follows:

The display semantics of the /S switch are reversed in that it shows
you only the files that are deleted, not the ones it could not find.

=========================

 

[Guest]

Hi HTH,

Thank you so much for going through so much trouble for me getting all
those switches. I deeply appreciate what you went through. You are a very
helpful and thoughtful person and so is everyone else that helps all of us
out at this site.

I am coping and pasting everything you wrote and saving it in a file with
notepad. The next time I delete my USB drive I will try the switches out.

Thanks again!!!
Jim

Hi Rock,

Thank you for explaining the ? to me. I am glad I didn't get a chance to
try out what I thought. I would not of known what I was doing wrong.

So I guess I am stuck deleting the drive the way I am?

Thanks everyone!!
Take care,
Jim

========================
Below is the results. I'd suggest that something like this would work:

del x:\*.* /F /Q

the /F in case there are read-only files, the /Q to suppress messages. You
might need /S as well.

Shouldn't take you long to test.

=========================
C:\Documents and Settings\Test User >del /?
Deletes one or more files.

DEL [/P] [/F] [/S] [/Q] [/A[[:]attributes]] names
ERASE [/P] [/F] [/S] [/Q] [/A[[:]attributes]] names

names Specifies a list of one or more files or directories.
Wildcards may be used to delete multiple files. If a
directory is specified, all files within the directory
will be deleted.

/P Prompts for confirmation before deleting each file.
/F Force deleting of read-only files.
/S Delete specified files from all subdirectories.
/Q Quiet mode, do not ask if ok to delete on global wildcard
/A Selects files to delete based on attributes
attributes R Read-only files S System files
H Hidden files A Files ready for archivin
- Prefix meaning not

If Command Extensions are enabled DEL and ERASE change as follows:

The display semantics of the /S switch are reversed in that it shows
you only the files that are deleted, not the ones it could not find.

=========================

 

[Alex Nichol]

I am wondering how I can erase a large USB external hard drive without
formatting it. I don't want to format the drive because it is fat32 and I am
running XP. I want to keep the drive fat32 so it works with my wireless
router. Any way I use this drive to back up my Laptop and Desktop computer
and from time to time I like to delete all the data on this drive and do a
fresh backup. Can someone please tell me a quick way to erase this drive
without using Format?

Go to Accessories - Command Prompt. Get to the drive by giving its
letter, eg
M:
Check you are indeed there with a
DIR
listing, then
DEL /S /F *.*
will delete everything on it

 

[Guest]

Hi Alex,

Thank you for telling me how to delete the USB drive. I probably will be
erasing it later today and I will try it your way.

Thanks again!
Take care,
Jim