External Hard Drive

[Deb C.]

I bought a Western Digital External Hard Drive, 500 GB. I have Windows XP.

I have been lurking on some forums, reading things they have written about EHDs, which made me have some concerns on how to install this. One person said they reformatted the drive from FAT32 to NTFS, which they said is recommended for a drive that size. Another person said they removed the WD junk software that was included. I really don't know what all this means, so I thought I would come to my trusted friends on this site and ask you guys for help.

So, the question that this computer-illiterate person has is: Do I need to do anything special to this external hard drive when I install it, like reformatting or something? Will there be any options that I will need to decide if I want to install or not?

Thanks for your help. I know I need to have a backup, but this is a little intimidating to me.

Deb C.

[dj_paige]

Most new external hard drives should be plug-and-play. In other words, you plug it into the electrical power supply, turn it on, plug it into a USB port on your computer, and you are ready to go. You shouldn't need to do any formatting, and it is entirely up to you whether or not you get rid of the pre-installed software. (Now, your external hard drive may be different, I don't have that model or that brand. There should be instructions...)

[Simenon]

If you are running XP you will get better performance reformatting that 500 GB external drive to NTFS. The WD Knowledge Base has this to say (paraphrased slightly) about the limitations of FAT 32 under WIN XP:

» A file cannot be transferred to a FAT32 partition if the file is larger than 4GB.
» FAT32 file system performs more slowly than NTFS
» It is recommended that you change the drive to the NTFS file system with Windows XP

NTFS is also more secure from outside file hacking. There are other technical aspects that favor NTFS over FAT 32, but these are the main ones that would likely directly affect you. Instructions for doing a reformat can be found at the WD Knowledge Base but they may be beyond your technical capabilities. A PC savvy friend could do it for you or the charge to have a PC shop reformat the drive to NTFS should be modest or perhaps even free if the shop was the merchant you purchased from. You would only need to bring them the drive and it takes about 2 minutes.

New large-sized external drives generally come pre-formatted as FAT 32 to make them backwards compatible with WIN 95\98.

As a precaution leave your external drive on only when actually using it. There is no sense in running the device when it is not needed. Shortly after plugging it in and turning it on you should be able to open My Computer and see the icon for your new drive. Double click to open and use just as you would an ordinary folder or any other drive or partition.

~ Simenon

[dales]

Deb, look @ the following for formating to NTFS. I did this the other day & it worked great.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/tips/advanced/ntfs.mspx

Good Luck.

[Deb C.]

Thanks everybody for the responses. I hope to do my backup tomorrow so I'll let you know how it goes. All of your advice is greatly appreciated.

Deb

[Deb C.]

If you are running XP you will get better performance reformatting that 500 GB external drive to NTFS. The WD Knowledge Base has this to say (paraphrased slightly) about the limitations of FAT 32 under WIN XP:

» A file cannot be transferred to a FAT32 partition if the file is larger than 4GB.
» FAT32 file system performs more slowly than NTFS
» It is recommended that you change the drive to the NTFS file system with Windows XP

NTFS is also more secure from outside file hacking. There are other technical aspects that favor NTFS over FAT 32, but these are the main ones that would likely directly affect you. Instructions for doing a reformat can be found at the WD Knowledge Base but they may be beyond your technical capabilities. A PC savvy friend could do it for you or the charge to have a PC shop reformat the drive to NTFS should be modest or perhaps even free if the shop was the merchant you purchased from. You would only need to bring them the drive and it takes about 2 minutes.

New large-sized external drives generally come pre-formatted as FAT 32 to make them backwards compatible with WIN 95\98.

As a precaution leave your external drive on only when actually using it. There is no sense in running the device when it is not needed. Shortly after plugging it in and turning it on you should be able to open My Computer and see the icon for your new drive. Double click to open and use just as you would an ordinary folder or any other drive or partition.

~ Simenon

I went to the WD site and did some reading. I have a few more questions to make sure I am doing this right:

I am using Windows XP, Service Pack 2. I want to use my EHD as a backup - - and as a second drive to access My Pictures through PSE 6. In other words, I want to be able to copy my 2006 pictures onto my EHD (thru PSE) and then delete them from my C drive to make more space.

To do all this, do I need to "partition" my EHD and put the My Documents backup on one partition and the 2006 pictures on another partition?

If I DO need to partition it, do I go by the instructions on the WD site entitled "How do I install, partition, and format an external hard drive in Windows XP and Vista?" If so, the instructions talk about choosing the partition size. How would I know what size to make it?

Sorry about all the questions. I think I'm probably making this more complicated than it really is. But thanks for all your help and patience.

Deb C.

[Simenon]

Hi Deb - no, you do not need to partition your EHD. You should however format it in NTFS if you haven't already done so to get maximum performance and security for that drive. The link provided by dales offers the procedure.

To leave the pix on the EHD and accessing from there for editing will probably be a little slower and add wear and tear to your external drive. If that is the only place you have your pictures stored it means an EHD failure may cost you your picture collection. There are those who feel external USB drives are more failure prone than internal drives. I have had at least 3 EHDs and never experienced a failure with any of them, but I only turn them on to do actual backups. I replaced one EHD only because it was simply too small by today's standards to be truly useful any longer.

Also you should update your WIN XP to SP3.

~ Simenon

[emkayess65]

Hi Deb, I am with Simenon. If you have your files and your back-up on the same external - you have essentially NO backup. The back-up idea is to have an independent stand-alone unit for your back-up. Your pictures in 2 places.
Some people even recommend that your back-up be at another location than your home.
I have two externals. One to make room on the C drive and another to do the back-up for BOTH the internal drive AND the connected external.

mks

[Deb C.]

Thanks for your help. I will heed your advice about not using the EHD for working pictures. That is, IF I can ever get it installed.....I can't get it to work. This is what I did......

I turned on the computer but I didn't log in. Then I plugged in the EHD and then I plugged in the USB cable. Nothing happened so I then logged in. I figured I must have done it wrong so I disconnected the USB (safely) and then unplugged it and turned the computer off.

I then turned on the computer and logged in as an administrator. I plugged in the EHD and then I connected the USB cable. I got a message saying to run this program I needed a 9 or greater version of Flash ActiveX control. I clicked yes to automatically install it. A blank screen then came up (entitled Adobe Flash Player 9). It sat there for 2 or 3 minutes and nothing else happened, so I turned everything off again (safely).

I went to the site it had listed and downloaded Flash Player 10. Then I tried installing the EHD again and I got the very same message and then the blank screen again.

When the EHD is plugged in, I can see it listed on My Computer. I read somewhere that if autorun doesn't come up, you can still install it manually by clicking on setup.exe. Well, I don't see that option in My Computer.

BTW, I am using Windows XP and I have a Western Digital My Book Essential Edition EHD (500 GB/Go).

I am at a loss as to what to do now. I would appreciate any help you can give me.

Thanks.
Deb C.

[Simenon]

Well, if you can see the EHD listed in My Computer it is recognized by Windows and turned on. Double click its icon or listing to open up the EHD just as you would a regular folder. You can then drag your photos to it or you should see the drive listed in your Right click Send To Menu. It probably has a clever name like Western Digital and a drive letter. For example, mine is named Western Digital (T).

I never encountered a situation where FlashPlayer was necessary to install a USB EHD. Perhaps that is for some kind of Help file. Just don't know. You shouldn't even need Administrator privileges. I have a WD drive but it is not the MyBook. Perhaps a MyBook user can point out some peculiarity about installing them that I am not aware of.

BTW that drive may also come with a backup program. Check your User Guide.

~ Simenon

PS - EHDs do not normally open up automatically. You have to double click their icon or listing to open (or single click if your PC is set that way) or send files to the drive using the Send To menu (the most common method after backup software). If you see the drive in your Send To menu Windows is quite aware of it.

Also I did some checking on the Internet and apparently that EHD comes with some 30 day trial software. That might be what the Flash stuff is all about. Those are optional and need not be installed for My Book to function.

[jim0004]

Deb, here's my 2-cents worth...

Log onto your computer, preferably as an Administrator account. Power-up the USB hard drive if necessary, then connect it to any available USB port. WinXP should give you a message of "New Hardware Found" and will go thru the actions of installing the USB drivers. WinXP will also "assign a drive letter" based on the configuration of your computer - could be anything from D: to Z: but whichever is chosen should have a label (disk name such as WD3120000A or something). When you see that, you can start using the drive.

I suggest that you reformat the thing to NTFS. Partitioning is not necessary nor is it recommended - "keep things simple" is best. Now, you can log out as the Administrator and log in as your normal account but, this time, you will see the newly installed drive listed in "My Computer".

One more thing that I strongly recommend is that you keep your pix on both the internal and the external HD. It can safely be said of hard drives that there are 2 kinds: those that have failed and those that are going to fail. If the external drive fails you gain nothing if all your photos have been removed from your internal drive and moved to the external.

Microsoft has a simple program on it's download site called "SyncBack" that will easily allow you to keep the 2 drives in sync so you diminish the odds of loosing anything important. Hard drive space is cheap and backing up to DVD's is a real pain so consider a second XTN USB drive for true backup purposes.

Good luck...

Jim