Need Recommendation for Good Ext Drive Partition

MMarianneS · Dec 13, 2010

Hi,

I have a Hitachi 250g ext HD that I purchased to copy my 200g laptop HD to, so I could have an efficient back up copy.

Now, maybe my prob is that I am trying to use the darned Win XP SP2 backup, but I also tried the IObit Adv Sys Care Pro. Same problems. Purpose of copying/mirroring HD is to install Win 7.

Anyway, I cannot seem to copy, move, or backup anything, because I keep getting messages about "info packet too big". So I decided that I wanted to format the Hitachi to NTFS rather than FAT32. Seems to me that keeping part of the drive FAT32 might be a good idea. Problem is, I cannot seem to access the drive to partition. I bought SwissKnife Pro, and it doesnt seem to help at all.

- Would love recommendation(s) for a program that will allow me to partition the ext Hitachi drive

-Recommendation for quality b/u software would be appreciated also.

I thought about doing it all in MS Dos, but havent used any of that stuff in a bazillion years, so am a bit fearful. Used to be a whiz back in the 80s, when you had to do everything yourself...I find these new programs designed to do it for you a bit idiotic and frustrating...I know there is a straightforward way of doing it oneself.

DavidGP · Dec 13, 2010

HI

Personally I would format the whole ext HDD to NTFS, I never have any drives as FAT32 any more, not data fault tollerant as much as NTFS, also you may get data packets too big as FAT32 has limits to the file sizes, so if you have very large files (4gb+) it may error.

A few options for transfering to Win7 are Windows Easy Transfer (does settings, docs etc BUT do check and add your own personal locations) or for a full image backup that you can open the backup and copy and paste your files back to the new install of Windows 7 are

Acronis True Image (not free but has a 15 day trial and hopefully you would have Win7 installed by then, but its a worthwhile purchase too, I have this app and use it all the time for weekly backups, may find it cheaper as a digital download HERE if you wish to buy software) or Easeus ToDo and this app has the same functionality as Acronis TI.

When I migrated to Win7, I did an Acronis/ToDo backup image*, copied all my personal files/docs and any Outlook .pst etc to the ext HDD, then also run Windows Easy Transfer, this copies settings and accounts also to ext HDD, so when Win7 was installed and updated as well as all drivers updated, I ran Windows Easy Transfer to add all the settings back, then istalled any apps etc I needed.

*Acronis and ToDo copy what are Image Files, these are a full backup of your HDD as it stands, so if something goes wrong you can boot to the startup disk (these apps create startup CD/DVD) and then plug in the ext HDD and recover your Image file and its like you never had any issues with your PC, all is back to normal... or to the date of your last Image file.

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Need Recommendation for Good Ext Drive Partition

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DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member