USB Hard Drive Questions

KenL · Post by **KenL** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:42 am

I bought an external USB hard drive, and I have several questions about them.

First, the USB drive is formatted as FAT32. My computers are formatted as NTFS. Would it be best to reformat the external USB drive to NTFS, or should I just leave it alone?

Secondly, I want to be able to use the external drive on more than one computer - i.e., use it to back up info on different computers. Is this possible, or should I get an external drive for each computer?

Third, my desktops are both NTFS, but my laptop is/might be FAT32 (don't have it handy right now to check.) If I can use the external hard drive on more than one computer, will the differing file systems cause any problems?

BTW, I'm using XP on each computer, and the USB hard drive is a Maxtor.

drjboulder · Post by **drjboulder** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:58 am

No doubt, you will probably get a reply here. However, that is pretty off topic even for "Off Topic"

I find this forum; Tech Guy, pretty useful for those type of questions.

onkel_enno · Post by **onkel_enno** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:29 am

You can use your external hardrive on both computers and it doesn't matter if it's NTFS or FAT32, XP can handle both!

Eyal · Post by **Eyal** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 5:25 am

KenL wrote:First, the USB drive is formatted as FAT32. My computers are formatted as NTFS. Would it be best to reformat the external USB drive to NTFS, or should I just leave it alone?

Leave it in FAT32 because there is a security matter with WIndows concerning NTFS drives.

It may happen that when formated NTFS with one computer, it will refuse to work with other computers because they don't have their signature on it.

onkel_enno · Post by **onkel_enno** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:19 am

Eyal wrote:It may happen that when formated NTFS with one computer, it will refuse to work with other computers because they don't have their signature on it.

Not if the Rights are set correctly!

Eyal · Post by **Eyal** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:06 pm

onkel_enno wrote:
Eyal wrote:It may happen that when formated NTFS with one computer, it will refuse to work with other computers because they don't have their signature on it.
Not if the Rights are set correctly!

Maybe so but I will not do it with an external USB drive because that's the kind of hardware you like to bring with you and connect on your friend's computer to share your files. And that's also the piece of hardware that contains your backups and you like to know it will work when first connected to your *new* computer after your old one as crashed for good.

And at the end what do you gain, apart security, for using NTFS? If it's for a server OK, but it's only for a home computer.

KenL · Post by **KenL** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 11:54 pm

Thanks to everyone for the information. You've all cleared up some things for me - it looks like I'll just keep the USB hard drive formatted as FAT32 to make life easier.

onkel_enno · Post by **onkel_enno** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 4:23 am

Eyal wrote:And at the end what do you gain, apart security, for using NTFS? If it's for a server OK, but it's only for a home computer.

The Main Reason is that Fat32 doesn't support Files > 4GB

USB Hard Drive Questions

USB Hard Drive Questions

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