Need help formatting external hard drive

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mojouk

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Hi.

I just wanted to ask a question about this external hard drive I've just bought.

It's 60GB drive. When I bought it it was empty/new and had 58GB on it.

I've been using it to back up my PC, I have just deleted everything on it so I could do a new back up.

It's empty and it's now 50GB!!!

I'm not sure why really. I tried to format it again, but it's not letting me.

.....when I right click on the Hard drive and select 'format' the computer tells me I can't format it because there are other windows open on the monitor (which there aren't).

What's the best to why to format an external hard drive?

Your help is much appreciated!!
 
Win XP ??

(right-click) My Computer > Manage > Disk Management > (right-click) the external drive and select "Format" > Choose whether you want ... ;)

:thumb:
 
Cheers muckshifter

Yes it's Windows XP.

I've done what you suggested, but it's coming up with the following message when I right click 'format'

'Primary partition is currently in use. To force format of this volume, click yes.
WARNING: Forcing a format might cause unexpected errors in the application that is using this volume. Do you want to conitinue?'

Is this a normal message when formatting a hard drive? I don't want to wreck my hard drive.
 
thanks very much for your help muckshifter.

I do find it puzzling why people advertise a hard drive as being '60GB' as only 55.8 of it is useable. (If I'd known that then I would have bought a bigger drive)
 
mojouk said:
thanks very much for your help muckshifter.

I do find it puzzling why people advertise a hard drive as being '60GB' as only 55.8 of it is useable. (If I'd known that then I would have bought a bigger drive)
Click to expand...
It is a numbers 'game' that they have played for years ... ;)
 
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