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windows xp and external HD issues

D

dcc777

n00b
Joined
Mar 12, 2004
Messages
5
Hello!

i recieved a WD 250gig drive and an external USB enclosure today. i installed the drive correctly into the enclosure (jumpering the drive as master) and hooked it up.

windows sees that a USB device is hooked up, but i can't access it through windows explorer - it just doesn't see it.

when i look at the device manager - its there. strange thing is, when i check the properties - volumes, it says status 'Not Initialized'

what am i doing wrong?

BTW - win xp pro with sp1 i believe.

dcc
 
Did Windows assign a drive letter to it?

Have you partitioned and formatted the drive?
 
So like, right click on my computer
goto manage
goto disk management
right click on the gray box on the left side (where it says disk #)
select initialize

enjoy your new drive! :)
 
or the quick way
Start > Run > (type) diskmgmt.msc > Initialize > RClick Unallocated space > Partition and Format

and dcc777 welcome to the Forums! :D
 
hmmm. that did the trick :)

thanks again. now - if i can just get xp to let me format the drive in fat32 instead of ntfs ill be all set....
 
why? you have some old games
or does it need to be accessed by Linux too?

for the most part FAT32 sux
small overhead advantage with small partitions
lousy recovery features and security
 
heya!

only reason i want to format fat32 is that its going to be sharing time with an ibook - and macs will see fat32, not ntfs.
 
gotcha ;)

when you RClick unallocated space and select partition the Create Partition Wizard will popup, partition as you see fit (personally Id avoid extended partitions and logical drives until absolutely necessary, you get 4 primary OR 3 primary and one extended with its own logicals)
the first window will be type primary extended or logical (with Primary available only I would think at this stage)
select and next > allocate the space > next > Assign Drive letter or Mount or not > Next > Now you are at the Format Partition window select FAT32 from the drop down list and give it a volume label > next > finish

(thats from W2K, should be the same for XP)
 
Windows XP won't let me format even an 80GB drive FAT32, I don't think it will let him do the 250...
 
DOH :eek: forgot :rolleyes:
there is a 32GB (or 28GB?) limit natively
that would be quite a few partitions :p

do you have Partition Magic?

Id still partition the holy hell out of it, large FAT32 partitions are just begging for trouble, but you can do it with a number of third party aps

let me lookup the "issues"
 
no partition magic (and for $70, i think ill pass :) )

i think i can just make a 98se boot disc, boot and run fdisk. apparantly that will work.

now - i need to find a floppy drive and a disc :)
 
edit guess it will :p

INFO: Limitations Of The Fat-32 File System

Fat-32 4GB file size limit
The largest file size that be saved to a hard drive is 4GB. The Fat-32 access table cannot store the file pointers for a file larger than 4GB. If a file larger than 4GB has to be stored on the drive, Microsoft suggests changing the file system to NTFS (where possible).


Windows XP and 2000 format limitation within Windows using Fat-32.
If a slave hard drive is added to a system, you can format the drive using Fat-32 file system within Windows (formatting a drive within Windows is very fast - 90 seconds or less). The formatting program built into these versions of Windows has a drive size limitation of 32GB. If you format a drive larger than 32GB in Windows, after the format, only 32GB will be available. This is a limitation of the Windows format component. If you use a boot disk and format with the DOS format utility, the full capacity of the drive will be utilized. To overcome this limitation within Windows XP or 2000, Microsoft suggests changing the file system to NTFS.


Windows 98 Fdisk 64GB drive size display problem
The Fdisk program that ships with Windows 98 has a drive size calculation problem. If you look at a drive larger than 64GB inside the Fdisk program, the drive size calculation will roll over at the 64GB mark and display the drive size minus 64GB. For example, if the physical drive is 70.3 GB (75,484,122,112 bytes) in size, Fdisk reports the drive as being 6.3 GB (6,764,579,840 bytes) in size. Microsoft has a file download to fix this problem. You can find the information and download in Microsoft KB doc Fdisk Does Not Recognize Full Size of Hard Disks Larger than 64 GB (Q263044)



Im getting the more info for you hold on
 
I have seen plenty of machines (30 or more) come back with file corruption requiring reloads just because they had an 80GB hard drive formatted with FAT32.
I really don't know what to say about formatting a 250GB as FAT32.
Maybe you could post in the Mac forum and ask about something for MacOS to read NTFS.
 
yeh there is a specific issue with partitions that large and FAT32
if i can just find it, I have to deal with FAT32 rarely on this forum
(hense all the dumb mistakes :p )

well Ive been looking for an hour now and cant find any "definitive" information regarding FAT32 partitions that large being less reliable
however there is a host of anecdotal evidence
you have to consider the following FAT32 is ancient and was never really designed to support that size of partition, and Windows is probably encourageing adoption of NTFS above 32GB for a reason
 
hmmm, ive had a 120gig drive that is fat32 that has been running for 9 months or so with no problems whatsoever.

as for getting a mac to read NTFS - its not gonna happen. sooo, i guess ill have to take my chances :)
 
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