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]

Barbara Rutter wrote:

> 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]

On Feb 6, 3:59 am, "Barbara Rutter"

wrote:

> 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]

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

wrote:



>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]

"mm" wrote in message

news:6bjrm5lq1ei6jgdvn4vane50qbi0c4b95j@4ax.com...

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

> wrote:

>



> 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

--

thanks a bunch





"mm" wrote:



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

> wrote:

>

> >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.

>

>

> .

>

 

[mm]

On Sat, 6 Feb 2010 20:51:38 -0000, "20100206"

wrote:



>

>"mm" wrote in message

>news:6bjrm5lq1ei6jgdvn4vane50qbi0c4b95j@4ax.com...

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

>> wrote:

>>

>

>> 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.



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.



>hth

>