External storage partitioning

[4breezes]

I recently bought a WD 500GB My Book external HD to use as a backup. My daughter immediately grabbed it and backed up her system.

Her system is running W98SE with FAT32 formatting. I'm running W2K with NTSF formatting. The 500 GB My Book came preformatted with FAT 32, so my daughter simply plugged it in and ran a complete backup.

Now I want to do the same with my NTSF system, but I can foresee a problem with the formatting.

As I see it, I've got to partition the My Book, and reformat one partition as NTSF.

Can I do this without damaging my daughter's data? Or must I go ahead, then have her repeat her backup? The reason for concern here is that her system has a rather shakey HD, causing a periodic boot problem.

What software is available to partition and reformat without damaging the existing data? I'm on a tight budget for this, so something free is preferable, but something reliable is even better.

I apreciate all help and suggestions.

[rmanet]

Welcome to Sysopt :)

Your external HDD came with software and install instructions - go there first. Better off partitioning and reformatting the drive using their software, then she can back hers up again using FAT32, and you can setup a partition using NTFS, whatever.

WD has alot of info if you need help - go here (http://support.wdc.com/techinfo/installation.asp)

Doubt it would take much time, and hers is a small and quick backup I'm sure.

If you wanted to save her backup, Partition Magic is a great tool but it's not free, and there are DOS based tools but not simple to use. And the WD software allows her system to "see" a drive that her mobo wouldn't usually support.

Others may have some ideas - all my externals are used to backup only NTFS, two machines to a drive.

[Ol'Tunzafun]

Whether you are just backing up files or comlete images, the file system should not pose a problem. Some early imaging programs could not store images on NTFS partitions but even that would not be a problem in this case.

[rraehal]

I back up my NTFS files to a FAT Hard Drive and even DVD. In either case the files are preserved but permissions are not.

You only need to back up NTFS using a utility or backup to a NTFS volume ot preserve file permissions. Most home users don't need to worry about that too much.

The permissions will be applied when files are restored based on the computer they are restored to.

[Midknyte]

It depends on the size, but FAT32 is ok for files less than 4GB. I don't see why you fell you need to repartition the drive unless you have really big backups. You didn't say what backup software you are using.

I wouldn't trust any program to repartition the drive without damage to the data.

[4breezes]

It depends on the size, but FAT32 is ok for files less than 4GB. I don't see why you fell you need to repartition the drive unless you have really big backups. You didn't say what backup software you are using.

I wouldn't trust any program to repartition the drive without damage to the data.

Thank you all for your replies. I think I'm headed in the right direction.

I have 33+ GB to back up, but no single file terribly large. Mine are purely personal interest: music, genealogy, family pictures, and such.

My daughter has less, I believe, but her's are more important. She has her scientific data, work related things, and the scientific articles she has published.

Are you saying that I can back up my NTSF drives onto FAT32 formatted drives? If worst came to worst and I had to tetreive them for placement onto an NTSF drive, could I do that? Could I expect them to copy back onto an NTSF drive without error or degradation? If that is the case, then I think I have no problem.

But, the question now is, can I back up files NTSF to FAT32, and subsequently put them back on an NTSF formatted drive?

[Midknyte]

It is NTFS, not NTSF.

yes you can backup an NTFS drive to FAT32. The files don't care what file system you put them on. You still didn't say what backup software you are using.

[4breezes]

It is NTFS, not NTSF.

yes you can backup an NTFS drive to FAT32. The files don't care what file system you put them on. You still didn't say what backup software you are using.

Opps. We'll write that one off to my confusion and befuddlement.

Software. At the moment I have two choices. I can use WD Backup, which came with and on the 500GB My Drive unit. My other choice is EMC Dantz Retrospect Express Backup. This later is the result of a class action suite which WD lost. I have used neither of these, so I don't know what to expect.

Do you recommend either of these over the other? In answering this, keep in mind that my system is old and slow.

[Midknyte]

It depends on what kind of backup you are doing. Acronis TrueImage is my favorite for full system image backups. If you're just backing up data, you can simply drag and drop.