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#1
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external 250GB for Winme
What configuration would the WinME gurus here recommend for the
implementation of a 250gb external USB drive? I get the impression that ME will not support a single 250gb partition. If that is so, what would be a good partition split? I would also like to share the storage of the drive with a networked XP pc. Ideally, I would like to drive to be utilized for storing backup images/clones of both the XP and ME pcs. |
#2
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external 250GB for Winme
"Ogg" wrote:
What configuration would the WinME gurus here recommend for the implementation of a 250gb external USB drive? I get the impression that ME will not support a single 250gb partition. If that is so, what would be a good partition split? I would also like to share the storage of the drive with a networked XP pc. Ideally, I would like to drive to be utilized for storing backup images/clones of both the XP and ME pcs. In order to use standard disk utilities such as Scandisk and Defrag on the drive you will need to split it into 2 partitions of approximately 125 gb each. With FAT32 these partitions will have a 32k cluster size which will be fine if you are storing large files on the drives as the slack space (average at least 16K per file) will not be a major consideration. However if you were using them for large numbers of small files then this could add up to a significant amount of disk space in total. Also with FAT32 you will have a a maximum file size of 4 gb and some applications will only create 2 gb files maximum. This may affect your storage of disk images, for example. You may want to consider using NTFS on at least one of the partitions as that will allow files larger than 4 gb, even though the NTFS partition would only be accessible from Windows XP. Good luck Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada -- Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006) On-Line Help Computer Service http://onlinehelp.bc.ca "Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference has never been in bed with a mosquito." |
#3
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external 250GB for Winme
Hello, Ron!
Thanks for all the tips/info below. The WinME pc didn't seem to have a way to initialize the external drive. It was "detected" as a USB memory device on the System Tray, but I couldn't find a way to configure it in Device Manager. What am I missing? Meanwhile, I plugged it into a spare XP Home pc. I was able to partition and configure the drive using the XP pc. However, there didn't seem to be a way to specify FAT32. The only option was NTFS. ((( Where did I go wrong in all this? You wrote on Fri, 30 Jun 2006 20:11:16 GMT: RM In order to use standard disk utilities such as Scandisk and Defrag on RM the drive you will need to split it into 2 partitions of approximately RM 125 gb each. RM With FAT32 these partitions will have a 32k cluster size which will be RM fine if you are storing large files on the drives as the slack space RM (average at least 16K per file) will not be a major consideration. RM However if you were using them for large numbers of small files then RM this could add up to a significant amount of disk space in total. RM Also with FAT32 you will have a a maximum file size of 4 gb and some RM applications will only create 2 gb files maximum. This may affect RM your storage of disk images, for example. RM You may want to consider using NTFS on at least one of the partitions RM as that will allow files larger than 4 gb, even though the NTFS RM partition would only be accessible from Windows XP. |
#4
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external 250GB for Winme
If you want to partition the drive from Win Me you need first to run FDISK
from a DOS prompt after which you can Format the drive via Explorer. Win Me, unlike XP, cannot natively partition a drive other than by running FDISK from a command prompt. You should however have been able to choose either NTFS or FAT from XP's Disk Manager but when using XP the maximum size partition that can be formatted as FAT32 is 32GB. XP however has no problem in accessing a larger FAT32 volume when the volume has been created by Win Me. -- Mike Maltby Ogg wrote: Hello, Ron! Thanks for all the tips/info below. The WinME pc didn't seem to have a way to initialize the external drive. It was "detected" as a USB memory device on the System Tray, but I couldn't find a way to configure it in Device Manager. What am I missing? Meanwhile, I plugged it into a spare XP Home pc. I was able to partition and configure the drive using the XP pc. However, there didn't seem to be a way to specify FAT32. The only option was NTFS. ((( Where did I go wrong in all this? |
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