Western Digital My Passport

[JMR]

Just bought one of these USB external hard drives [160gb] to back up all my current laptop drive.

The included WD sync software is reasonably good, but accessing the backed up data is a bit fiddly. You have to view it thro the WD sync software as its encrypted. Not exactly what I wanted. I'm not going to take the drive away anywhere, thought sync'ing my e-mail files is pretty good.

So i've copied the software onto my local drive, and I'm thinking about reformatting the drive in NTFS instead of FAT32 as it is supplied. Or should i keep FAT32???:S

I'd welcome some advice from you guys who know a little more than me....that should be quite a few of you

I actually want to use this now as my main storage drive, as the laptop HDD is a bit small, I've only got 2gb free!! Plus the camera pics I keep uploading are going on rapidly from the 2GB cards i use in the 8mp ricoh and the 9mp fuji cameras.

James

 

[David]

i deleted all the software and reformatted NTFS. much better.

 

[MrBean90]

Yeah, FAT32 is only designed for hard drives below 32GB i think ? NTFS was designed for bigger Hard drives for the simple reason that its file structure makes it alot faster to access, move and delete files.

 

[JMR]

Ok.

I've backed up the software that was supplied on the drive, now I'm about to format NTFS.

 

[David]

well the main reason would bne to have 4gig + files on it tbh!

 

[JMR]

I read that somewhere else David.

Nice one, all done, no probs. Cheers.

 

[dk]

the 4gb file thing is probably the only reason for home use, my need is greater than that though, if you want to plug it in to your 360 or ps3 to view things on it then you will need to keep it FAT32

 

[Clart]

Can you have 2 partitions, one for xbox (fat32) the other NTFS

 

[Gareth]

I'm thinking of buying one of these, will be useful for PS3 and general use

 

[David]

Can you have 2 partitions, one for xbox (fat32) the other NTFS

heh clever boi

 

[JMR]

I'm thinking of buying one of these, will be useful for PS3 and general use

£59 special offer at moment - PC World - 160Gb

Nice product, quiet, easy to use, fast.

 

[RSi Dave]

got an 80gb version and cant get xp to read it, vista reads it fine however so must be something usb drivers or something....

 

[dk]

Can you have 2 partitions, one for xbox (fat32) the other NTFS

interesting, not sure actually, not something i have tried.

 

[donofkarma]

Very handy drive - works on my Vista and XP machines fine and also on my 360. Only problem is that mine has just been sent off for repair as it died, but only using to hold music and other bits (copies) for work. WD support is also very good.

Oh, and formatting to NTFS is definietly worth it!

-Jas.

 

[Gareth]

I've got the 250gb version coming tomorrow, PC World's collect@store service is a f**king joke

 

[Hazza]

I'm contemplating on buying the 500gb Western Digital Ext Hard Drive.



Can't wait for it, it looks smart, and will sit snuggly next to my monitor for al those p**n movies to download onto.

 

[Michael172]

Just bought one of these USB external hard drives [160gb] to back up all my current laptop drive.

The included WD sync software is reasonably good, but accessing the backed up data is a bit fiddly. You have to view it thro the WD sync software as its encrypted. Not exactly what I wanted. I'm not going to take the drive away anywhere, thought sync'ing my e-mail files is pretty good.

So i've copied the software onto my local drive, and I'm thinking about reformatting the drive in NTFS instead of FAT32 as it is supplied. Or should i keep FAT32???:S

I'd welcome some advice from you guys who know a little more than me....that should be quite a few of you

I actually want to use this now as my main storage drive, as the laptop HDD is a bit small, I've only got 2gb free!! Plus the camera pics I keep uploading are going on rapidly from the 2GB cards i use in the 8mp ricoh and the 9mp fuji cameras.

James

i deleted all the software and reformatted NTFS. much better.

Exactly, i took one look at the contents of the drive, and then formatted it.