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New External Hard Drive for Backup need help with Partitions on Dell Dimension 4600 with XP
I have
Dell Dimension 4600 -
Windows XP Home Edition
Version 2002 Service Pack 3
4 CPU 2.80GHz
2.79 GHz, 1.50 GB of RAM
32 bit
I bought a Western Digital 1.0 TB hard drive and Thermaltake Black Widow BlacX enclosure.
Connected using USB port on the front of the CPU that I use for my digital camera.
How do I partition this and get my backup rolling?
I want to use this to backup Dell Dimension 3000 running XP also.
I may want to use this on WIndows 7 too.
Disk 0 - 74.50gb- online
39 mb FAT Local Disk - EISA configuration - healthy
Local Disk F: 53.65gb NTFS - healthy - active
New Volume G: 20.82gb NTFS - healthy
Disk 1 - Basic - 465.75gb - online
251mb FAT - EISA configuration - healthy
Local Disk C: 465.51gb NTFS healthy - System
Disk 2 - Basic 931.51gb - online
931.51gb
Unallocated
osprey4
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January 8th, 2010 16:00
Hi, DuttonFarmer2:
Use disk management to partition and format your new drive. You'll need to use NTFS.
Had you bought an external drive that came all put together, they usually do this for you, but not bare drives such as you've gotten.
Good luck!
DuttonFarmer2
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January 11th, 2010 08:00
Thanks for the help Osprey4
My next question is What Size Should I Make the Partitions?
osprey4
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January 12th, 2010 09:00
There's no hard and fast rule. It depends on your back-up strategy. I personally only back up my important files, not the entire system, so my external drive (250GB) is one large partition. My father has a 500GB drive and uses a 400GB hidden partition for a monthly complete system backup, and a 100GB partition for a daily data files backup. I use an MS utility called Synctoy for file backup, while my Dad uses Acronis (I set it up for him).
Acronis is an excellent program for backup and a lot of other hard drive maintenance tools.
DuttonFarmer2
33 Posts
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January 15th, 2010 08:00
Thanks Osprey
I haven't been getting email to let me know you posted.
Thanks for all the help!
DFarmer