Western Digital 250g My Book Essential

[beejay]

Ive just bought the above as i want to backup on an external drive rather than in the 2 hard drives in the PC at present, C drive 80g and second is 20g.
Im part way through changing the WD from fat32 to ntfs as ive been told to do this? I have windows XP Home, and the wizard is now asking me to choose the partition size and click next!!
What partition size do I select as I can go anywhere between 8mb up to 250gb and I havent a clue what to do.
Also, the WD came with only a quick install guide and gives no instructions on how to perform a back up. Is there a programme I can download that will let me schedule regular backup to the external drive?
Assistance will be greatly appreciated.
beejay

 

[Philly]

BeeJay
Go for the largest partition you can. You can format more than one partition (making "two" or more hard drives out of one) but this is an advanced user trick.
Hope this helps
Philly

 

[RogerS]

Hi beejay

I started to reply but then revisited your original thread. Where are your documents/files/data/music/photos etc stored ? All on the C drive?

I was going to suggest making two partitions of 80Gb so that you could make complete images of your C drive using something like Ghost...and then to divide the rest up into 20Gb chunks so that you could backup your D drive on a rolling schedule...as in Monday backup D to 20Gb chunk x, Tuesday to chunk y but there are a zillion different backup scenarios for you to choose from. I use a program from geniesoft.

BUT...your C drive is quite large and so maybe your data is stored there and not on D. What do you have on your D drive?

 

[Roger]

Hi Beejay ..... it's best if you do a bit of reading first and decide what you're going to back-up, when and how. Have a read through this site which gives a lot of down to earth advice and details. It's going to come down to your choice in the end once you've worked out your plan. Partitioning and Backup

 

[Freetochat]

Beejay - If I was in your position I would divide the drive into two. Have one drive that then has an ongoing backup og your C and D drive and the other half as a data file for any files that you wish to archive and keep. I use two backup programs one is called Hotsync and the other Flipback. The Hotsync program firstly does a backup of both drives and then when you plug in your external drive Hotsync automatically makes a backup of any new files and any that have changed. Flipback is a restore program in case of a problem with your PC. We have two of those drives and they work well, and are quite quick for access as well.

With backup software, just decide how you want the backups to work. Some backup programs compress the files and it becomes difficult to select an individual file from the backup if you wish to. That is my reason for using Hotsync as my drives are mirrored and I can select any file or document.

 

[Freetochat]

Beejay - If I was in your position I would divide the drive into two. Have one drive that then has an ongoing backup og your C and D drive and the other half as a data file for any files that you wish to archive and keep. I use two backup programs one is called Hotsync and the other Flipback. The Hotsync program firstly does a backup of both drives and then when you plug in your external drive Hotsync automatically makes a backup of any new files and any that have changed. Flipback is a restore program in case of a problem with your PC. We have two of those drives and they work well, and are quite quick for access as well.

With backup software, just decide how you want the backups to work. Some backup programs compress the files and it becomes difficult to select an individual file from the backup if you wish to. That is my reason for using Hotsync as my drives are mirrored and I can select any file or document.

 

[beejay]

Thank you all, I think i undersatnd the partition a bit more clearly now.
However i seem to have found a new problem: after i cancelled the fat32 to ntfs process yesterday to post my plea for help, I can no longer see the icon for the new drive when I click on my computer.
It appears listed in device manager, and in device properties its listed but shows its location as 0. dont know if thats relevant or not
I have uninstalled it a couple of times and reinstalled it getting the little message at the bottom of my screen to say- found new hardware- and installed and working- but there is no icon appearing on the desktop or when I open MyComputer.,
Have I messed things up or could the drive be faulty?
Its so frustrating not understanding such things.
beejay

 

[Roger]

However, when you say 'Cancelled' I hope that doesn’t mean you actually got half through and then hit the Cancel button? That wouldn’t be the best thing to do!

Once the Drive is installed, you then have to Partition it to your own choice and then format each Partition as normal. Each one will then appear as a new Drive letter.

If you actually cancelled half way through, you’ll have to start everything again from after the actual installation part.

From what you've said, you should have a system that shows the Drives - A, C, D and maybe E and F (if you have 2 CD or DVD). The external should be showing as the next letter(s) after those.

 

[beejay]

Thank you all for help which enabled me to get the drive up and running. I had caused the problem by stopping the reformat part way through the process causing the drive to be unallocated.
When I went back in to complete the fat32 to ntfs procedure, it automatically allocated itself to G and I have now completed my first back up to the external drive. I managed to loose the folders that were in the drive in original fat32 format during the process but I think they contained things like Google and Acrobat reader etc and so far I haven't missed them. I only hope I didn't delete anything really important.
Its an excellent machine , so far,,, quiet and does what it should do. The instruction book is a joke, nothing more than a quick install guide and it makes no mention all about backing up and when I gave the help line a call I was told to click and drag, click and drag :shock: by a young Phillipino girl!!
I eventually downloaded a program, a freebie, called Replicator which lets me schedule regular backup of my work.
The only thing I cant figure out now is how to copy and backup the folders I have set up in Outlook. I don't think backing up the C drive has pulled Outlook data across.
Back to the drawing board,, but thanks again for your help.
regards,
beejay

 

[Freetochat]

Beejay - if you copied the c drive then you would normally have copied your outlook file. Outlook uses a .pst file extension. If you go to 'start' 'search' you can put in *.pst and search the c drive (including hidden files) you will find where your outlook file is. Mine is located in my 'Documents and Settings' folder.