Western Digital external hard drive

[Barbara Rutter]

A friend of mine has a WD my book external hdd with back-up software
installed on it. I wish to know if the WD can be formatted clean so he can
use his own choice of back-up software. If the drive cannot be formatted,
can he still use his own choice of software and not use the WD back-up
software. If so, how is this done. he is running windows media centre fully
updated
thank you

 

[Daave]

A friend of mine has a WD my book external hdd with back-up software
installed on it. I wish to know if the WD can be formatted clean so
he can use his own choice of back-up software. If the drive cannot be
formatted, can he still use his own choice of software and not use
the WD back-up software. If so, how is this done. he is running
windows media centre fully updated
thank you

I have one of these.

Any hard drive can be formatted. Actually, I decided to delete the
partition (which was FAT32), create two new ones, and format them. One I
made FAT32, and the other NTFS.

Your friend can use any backup software he chooses. The program won't be
on the external drive; it will be installed on the PC. (Another option
is to use a bootable CD. For instance, I use Acronis True Image Home. If
the need arises, I can configure my BIOS to boot off the emergency CD
and use it to restore the most recent image, which resides on my
external drive.)

FWIW, the drive doesn't even need to be reformatted for your friend to
use the backup software of his choice.

What is his particular backup strategy? Data only (better than nothing,
but not the best)? Imaging? Cloning?

 

[duke]

A friend of mine has a WD my book external hdd with back-up software
installed on it. I wish to know if the WD can be formatted clean  so hecan
use his own choice of back-up software. If the drive cannot be formatted,
can he still use his own choice of software and not use the WD back-up
software. If so, how is this done. he is running windows media centre fully
updated
thank you

There is nothing preventing anyone from formatting a hard drive.
From My computer, right click on the hard drive and select format.
You will receive a warning advising you that you are about to lose all
the data on the hard drive.
Do you wish to continue.... Yes / No ?

That's all there is to it !

 

[Barbara Rutter]

thank you both for the replies. I was going to suggest to him backing up all
the internal hard drive using the software I use which is Paragon Back Up
but I thought I would ask for advice first
thank you so much

 

[mm]

thank you both for the replies. I was going to suggest to him backing up all
the internal hard drive using the software I use which is Paragon Back Up
but I thought I would ask for advice first
thank you so much

I too have a My Book, 500 gig. I wouldnt' reformat it. Maybe later
he'll want to use that software. He paid for it, and it only takes up
a tiny bit of space.

But that doesn't stop him from using any other software. I back up my
winXP computer to C:\winxp, and my win2000 computer to
c:\win2000Basement, and my little sister's computer to C:\Win2000Sis.

 

[20100206]

On Sat, 6 Feb 2010 16:31:13 -0000, "Barbara Rutter"

I too have a My Book, 500 gig. I wouldnt' reformat it. Maybe later
he'll want to use that software. He paid for it, and it only takes up
a tiny bit of space.

It's a mistake not to reformat the external HD. the reason being it is in
FAT32 format and so it can't hold files greater than 4 GB. NTFS file system
is much more secure and you can save larger files. Very useful especially
if you are cloning your system. You can copy the software on to your HD
before reformatting the external drive because as you say it takes up a tiny
bit of space. These files can then be re-copied back on to external drive.

hth

 

[Perky]

you folks have answered all parts of my question and I am very grateful
indeed.all the best to you and yours from nw england

 

[mm]

It's a mistake not to reformat the external HD. the reason being it is in
FAT32 format and so it can't hold files greater than 4 GB. NTFS file system
is much more secure and you can save larger files. Very useful especially
if you are cloning your system.

Thanks. By cloning the system, is that the same as making an image
from which one can restore the harddrive. Elsewhere I got the idea
that such an image has to made on the same model harddrive, same size
in bytes, same number of platters, etc.

So can I clone my ~75 gig drive, or my ~26 gig partition, or the 16
gig that I have used, to a 500 gig WD My Book? Or make an image file
on it?

Thanks again.

You can copy the software on to your HD
before reformatting the external drive because as you say it takes up a tiny
bit of space. These files can then be re-copied back on to external drive.

I get it.