USB HD question ??

[Andy100]

I have WinXP Pro on my main HD. I have just bought a cage which converts my
second HD to USB and have connected it and it works great. I only use it for
storing music/video/pictures (in yellow folders), and so my question is,
does the USB HD need an operating system on it if i'm only ever going to
read it from within my WinXP (i.e. i'm not going to use it without going
through my first HD which has XP on it).

I know the USB HD has WinMe on it, but i was thinking that i could format it
back to factory settings and have no operating system on it, that way i
might gain a bit of extra space.

Wasn't sure if it could be done ?

Cheers
Andy

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

The USB HD does not need an OS on it. I have a USB 2.0 Cradle that I switch
out different 3.5 inch HDD`s depending on what I`m doing with them. 2 of my
HDD`s are used for periodic backups on 2 of my 3 computers. Now I know some
of the newer MoBo`s support booting off of external devices like USB, so you
can do that if you want, but don`t know why though. So, no, you don`t need
an OS on the USB drive.

Jeff

 

[JEM]

Yes, you can format it. BUT!!! Make sure you back up any files on it before
the format. Formatting completely erases the contents of the drive.

1. Copy (transfer) files you want to keep from USB drive to your computer.
2. Format the USB drive.
3. Copy (transfer) the files you saved (from the USB drive) from your
computer back to the USB drive.

 

[LVTravel]

Andy, if you want you don't even have to format the drive to rid yourself of
the Windows ME files. You can simply delete them.

To do this start Windows Explorer and make sure you are at the drive letter
of the USB drive (this will NOT be drive C.)

Find the Windows folder in the right pane and click once on it. This will
highlight the folder. While holding down either shift key press the Del key
once. This will start the delete process.

You will have to answer a few messages about deleting program files and
possibly read only files. Answer each with a Yes to all. Eventually the
entire Windows folder which contained the ME files will be gone.

You should also look for another folder on the same drive labeled Win9X. If
you see this folder you can delete it also as it was the setup files for ME.

You can also delete the folder called WUtemp and Temp on the same drive as
these were the folders where the ME update files were stored and other
temporary files were stored when it was the main drive in the computer.

 

[Andy100]

Cheers LVTravel, i hadn't thought of that, i'll give it a go, you have
probably saved me an hour !!!

Thanks
Andy

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have WinXP Pro on my main HD. I have just bought a cage which converts my
second HD to USB and have connected it and it works great. I only use it for
storing music/video/pictures (in yellow folders), and so my question is,
does the USB HD need an operating system on it if i'm only ever going to
read it from within my WinXP (i.e. i'm not going to use it without going
through my first HD which has XP on it).

I know the USB HD has WinMe on it, but i was thinking that i could format it
back to factory settings and have no operating system on it, that way i
might gain a bit of extra space.

You don't need an OS on it. Rather than reformat I would just delete
the folders on it that belong to the ME system - Windows and Program
files, and possibly any others put there by programs you had installed