reformatting external USB drive

I recently bought two external USB drives for backing up the internal hard
drive on my Windows XP SP3 computer. I also bought Acronis True Image 11
Home to do the backups. I thought that when the program did its first
backup, it would reformat the external drive from FAT32 to NTFS. However, it
didn't. I asked on the Acronis forum and was told the program doesn't
reformat drives but that it might be a good idea to do so myself; I was also
told that this reformat won't affect data on the drive.

Should I do the reformat? If so, how do I do it? (If you could point me to a
website offering this information, that would be wonderful.)

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

Jo-Anne Naples wrote:
> I recently bought two external USB drives for backing up the internal hard
> drive on my Windows XP SP3 computer. I also bought Acronis True Image 11
> Home to do the backups. I thought that when the program did its first
> backup, it would reformat the external drive from FAT32 to NTFS. However, it
> didn't. I asked on the Acronis forum and was told the program doesn't
> reformat drives but that it might be a good idea to do so myself; I was also
> told that this reformat won't affect data on the drive.
>
> Should I do the reformat? If so, how do I do it? (If you could point me to a
> website offering this information, that would be wonderful.)
>
> Thank you!
>
> Jo-Anne
>
>
If you clone from drive to drive, you erase everything on the
destination drive, or at least the partition you clone to.

If you backup (image) your internal HD, then it will just place a file
on the external drive containing the image.

Either method you can recover from.

Clone just means that you can just install the external drive in your
internal and away you go.

I like to make images. I can make quite a few 10 gig images on a 320
gig drive. And go back quite a ways back to see old versions of files.

HTH.

Thank you, Al! I think I was making images with my backup rather than
cloning the drive. What Acronis did was create five backup files. I've been
told that's because it had to split the backup into 4GB files, since with
FAT32 there's no way of having a file of more than 4GB. Hence my interest in
reformatting to NTFS.

Jo-Anne

"Big_Al" <BigAl@md.com> wrote in message
news:OFvEY2N0IHA.5520@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Jo-Anne Naples wrote:
>> I recently bought two external USB drives for backing up the internal
>> hard drive on my Windows XP SP3 computer. I also bought Acronis True
>> Image 11 Home to do the backups. I thought that when the program did its
>> first backup, it would reformat the external drive from FAT32 to NTFS.
>> However, it didn't. I asked on the Acronis forum and was told the program
>> doesn't reformat drives but that it might be a good idea to do so myself;
>> I was also told that this reformat won't affect data on the drive.
>>
>> Should I do the reformat? If so, how do I do it? (If you could point me
>> to a website offering this information, that would be wonderful.)
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>> Jo-Anne
> If you clone from drive to drive, you erase everything on the destination
> drive, or at least the partition you clone to.
>
> If you backup (image) your internal HD, then it will just place a file on
> the external drive containing the image.
>
> Either method you can recover from.
>
> Clone just means that you can just install the external drive in your
> internal and away you go.
>
> I like to make images. I can make quite a few 10 gig images on a 320 gig
> drive. And go back quite a ways back to see old versions of files.
>
> HTH.

Jo-Anne Naples wrote:
> Thank you, Al! I think I was making images with my backup rather than
> cloning the drive. What Acronis did was create five backup files. I've been
> told that's because it had to split the backup into 4GB files, since with
> FAT32 there's no way of having a file of more than 4GB. Hence my interest in
> reformatting to NTFS.
>
> Jo-Anne
>
> "Big_Al" <BigAl@md.com> wrote in message
> news:OFvEY2N0IHA.5520@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> Jo-Anne Naples wrote:
>>> I recently bought two external USB drives for backing up the internal
>>> hard drive on my Windows XP SP3 computer. I also bought Acronis True
>>> Image 11 Home to do the backups. I thought that when the program did its
>>> first backup, it would reformat the external drive from FAT32 to NTFS.
>>> However, it didn't. I asked on the Acronis forum and was told the program
>>> doesn't reformat drives but that it might be a good idea to do so myself;
>>> I was also told that this reformat won't affect data on the drive.
>>>
>>> Should I do the reformat? If so, how do I do it? (If you could point me
>>> to a website offering this information, that would be wonderful.)
>>>
>>> Thank you!
>>>
>>> Jo-Anne
>> If you clone from drive to drive, you erase everything on the destination
>> drive, or at least the partition you clone to.
>>
>> If you backup (image) your internal HD, then it will just place a file on
>> the external drive containing the image.
>>
>> Either method you can recover from.
>>
>> Clone just means that you can just install the external drive in your
>> internal and away you go.
>>
>> I like to make images. I can make quite a few 10 gig images on a 320 gig
>> drive. And go back quite a ways back to see old versions of files.
>>
>> HTH.
>
>
Yes, I have my drive formatted to NTFS, and it holds 36 gig files just easy.

Jo-Anne Naples wrote:
> I recently bought two external USB drives for backing up the internal hard
> drive on my Windows XP SP3 computer. I also bought Acronis True Image 11
> Home to do the backups. I thought that when the program did its first
> backup, it would reformat the external drive from FAT32 to NTFS. However, it
> didn't. I asked on the Acronis forum and was told the program doesn't
> reformat drives but that it might be a good idea to do so myself; I was also
> told that this reformat won't affect data on the drive.
>
> Should I do the reformat? If so, how do I do it? (If you could point me to a
> website offering this information, that would be wonderful.)
>
> Thank you!
>
> Jo-Anne
>
>
I don't think it matters to Acronis what format the backup drive is.
If you should want to reformat, it will destroy any data on the drive,
unless it is in a separate partition, then you can format the other
partition. The time to test it is now. Move a file from it's usual
location then see if Acronis can replace it from the USB drive.

Should you desire to reformat a USB drive, plug it in then go to
Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Disk Management. Then right click
on the USB drive and select Format. MAKE SURE YOU ARE FORMATTING THE
CORRECT DRIVE. It will give you a drop-down choice to format in NTFS
or Fat32.

I just formatted a USB drive tonight using this, as well as changing
it from 3 partitions to a single partition. Very easy.

--
Gerald Ross
Cochran, GA

Too much of a good thing is *wonderful*.

Thank you, Gerald! That's exactly what I wanted to know.

Jo-Anne

"Gerald Ross" <gwader@comsouth.net> wrote in message
news:%23fwYCBO0IHA.4500@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Jo-Anne Naples wrote:
>> I recently bought two external USB drives for backing up the internal
>> hard drive on my Windows XP SP3 computer. I also bought Acronis True
>> Image 11 Home to do the backups. I thought that when the program did its
>> first backup, it would reformat the external drive from FAT32 to NTFS.
>> However, it didn't. I asked on the Acronis forum and was told the program
>> doesn't reformat drives but that it might be a good idea to do so myself;
>> I was also told that this reformat won't affect data on the drive.
>>
>> Should I do the reformat? If so, how do I do it? (If you could point me
>> to a website offering this information, that would be wonderful.)
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>> Jo-Anne
> I don't think it matters to Acronis what format the backup drive is. If
> you should want to reformat, it will destroy any data on the drive, unless
> it is in a separate partition, then you can format the other partition.
> The time to test it is now. Move a file from it's usual location then see
> if Acronis can replace it from the USB drive.
>
> Should you desire to reformat a USB drive, plug it in then go to Control
> Panel>Administrative Tools>Disk Management. Then right click on the USB
> drive and select Format. MAKE SURE YOU ARE FORMATTING THE CORRECT DRIVE.
> It will give you a drop-down choice to format in NTFS or Fat32.
>
> I just formatted a USB drive tonight using this, as well as changing it
> from 3 partitions to a single partition. Very easy.
>
> --
> Gerald Ross
> Cochran, GA
>
> Too much of a good thing is *wonderful*.
>
>
>
>

Thank you again, Al!

Jo-Anne

"Big_Al" <BigAl@md.com> wrote in message
news:%23G$Iz8N0IHA.5944@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Jo-Anne Naples wrote:
>> Thank you, Al! I think I was making images with my backup rather than
>> cloning the drive. What Acronis did was create five backup files. I've
>> been told that's because it had to split the backup into 4GB files, since
>> with FAT32 there's no way of having a file of more than 4GB. Hence my
>> interest in reformatting to NTFS.
>>
>> Jo-Anne
>>
>> "Big_Al" <BigAl@md.com> wrote in message
>> news:OFvEY2N0IHA.5520@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>> Jo-Anne Naples wrote:
>>>> I recently bought two external USB drives for backing up the internal
>>>> hard drive on my Windows XP SP3 computer. I also bought Acronis True
>>>> Image 11 Home to do the backups. I thought that when the program did
>>>> its first backup, it would reformat the external drive from FAT32 to
>>>> NTFS. However, it didn't. I asked on the Acronis forum and was told the
>>>> program doesn't reformat drives but that it might be a good idea to do
>>>> so myself; I was also told that this reformat won't affect data on the
>>>> drive.
>>>>
>>>> Should I do the reformat? If so, how do I do it? (If you could point me
>>>> to a website offering this information, that would be wonderful.)
>>>>
>>>> Thank you!
>>>>
>>>> Jo-Anne
>>> If you clone from drive to drive, you erase everything on the
>>> destination drive, or at least the partition you clone to.
>>>
>>> If you backup (image) your internal HD, then it will just place a file
>>> on the external drive containing the image.
>>>
>>> Either method you can recover from.
>>>
>>> Clone just means that you can just install the external drive in your
>>> internal and away you go.
>>>
>>> I like to make images. I can make quite a few 10 gig images on a 320
>>> gig drive. And go back quite a ways back to see old versions of files.
>>>
>>> HTH.
>>
>>
> Yes, I have my drive formatted to NTFS, and it holds 36 gig files just
> easy.

Jo-Anne Naples wrote:
> Thank you, Al! I think I was making images with my backup rather than
> cloning the drive. What Acronis did was create five backup files. I've been
> told that's because it had to split the backup into 4GB files, since with
> FAT32 there's no way of having a file of more than 4GB. Hence my interest in
> reformatting to NTFS.
>
> Jo-Anne
>

Just for your peace of mind, cloning is best reserved for making an
exact duplicate of a hard drive [partition] into another hard drive
that might eventually be used inside the computer as a functioning
part. OTOH, making a disk image file is more typical for producing a
more precise backup of a hard drive, or parts of it. The image file is
typically used to restore files, folders, etc., when the need arises.
If large image files are involved, it is better to use NTFS partitions.

Thank you, Ghostrider! I'm beginning to understand the difference.

Since it probably wouldn't be easy to remove my external drives from their
cases, I think I should plan on always imaging the drive rather than cloning
it. If my internal drive dies, I would then buy another one and restore to
it from the external.

As far as I know, Acronis is an imaging program rather than a cloning
program--or at least at its website it refers to its "patented disk imaging
technology." Moreover, you have to make a separate boot disk with Acronis
(if you want one), which suggests that it's not cloning the internal
drive--right?

Jo-Anne

"Ghostrider" <-00-@fitron.142> wrote in message
news:uaS9OFO0IHA.3968@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
> Jo-Anne Naples wrote:
>> Thank you, Al! I think I was making images with my backup rather than
>> cloning the drive. What Acronis did was create five backup files. I've
>> been told that's because it had to split the backup into 4GB files, since
>> with FAT32 there's no way of having a file of more than 4GB. Hence my
>> interest in reformatting to NTFS.
>>
>> Jo-Anne
>>
>
> Just for your peace of mind, cloning is best reserved for making an
> exact duplicate of a hard drive [partition] into another hard drive
> that might eventually be used inside the computer as a functioning
> part. OTOH, making a disk image file is more typical for producing a
> more precise backup of a hard drive, or parts of it. The image file is
> typically used to restore files, folders, etc., when the need arises.
> If large image files are involved, it is better to use NTFS partitions.
>

If your source drive system partition is formatted as NTFS (which it most
likely is if you're using WinXP), you should be imaging it or cloning it to
a similarly formatted NTFS partitition in the backup drive. I'd say get
rid of the FAT32, unless you have some special need for that (like backing
up a source's FAT32 partition to a similar partition on the backup drive).

Jo-Anne Naples wrote:
> I recently bought two external USB drives for backing up the internal hard
> drive on my Windows XP SP3 computer. I also bought Acronis True Image 11
> Home to do the backups. I thought that when the program did its first
> backup, it would reformat the external drive from FAT32 to NTFS. However,
> it
> didn't. I asked on the Acronis forum and was told the program doesn't
> reformat drives but that it might be a good idea to do so myself; I was
> also
> told that this reformat won't affect data on the drive.
>
> Should I do the reformat? If so, how do I do it? (If you could point me to
> a
> website offering this information, that would be wonderful.)
>
> Thank you!
>
> Jo-Anne