[RESOLVED] USB External Drive FAT32 or NTFS?

**Mags** · May 4th, 2007, 04:48 AM

Hello,

I've got one of these...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digi.../dp/B000A1C6F6

It's FAT32 of course, but it's 60 GIG.

Is it safe to reformat it to NTFS ?

Thanks.

**shamus** · May 4th, 2007, 07:35 AM

Originally Posted by Mags

Is it safe to reformat it to NTFS ?

Yes. As long as you don't intend to use it with an OS that can't see\read NTFS drives (like Windows 98).

**Mags** · May 4th, 2007, 01:53 PM

Thanks Shamus, I'll give it a go ... have now found one other person via Google who did so.

**Platypus** · May 5th, 2007, 09:08 AM

If a removable drive is formatted NTFS, be careful to use it on a system that has removable drives optimized for safe removal not performance, or be absolutely meticulous about using the safe removal icon in the system tray before disconnecting the drive. NTFS uses delayed writes quite agressively, and corruption can occur if safe removal is not observed.

**Mags** · May 6th, 2007, 04:06 PM

Thanks Platypus...

I might not reformat it just yet, in case anything goes wrong. It's really fast backing things up, it's only the defragging that's slower.

But thanks for all the advice, at least I know it can be done.

**slgrieb** · May 6th, 2007, 11:59 PM

Mags, NTFS is much more robust and less prone to data corruption than FAT32. The drive is shipped formatted in FAT32 to make it compatible with Windows 9x. If you don't intend to share data with computers using W98 or the like with this drive, go ahead and reformat it.

**Mags** · May 11th, 2007, 11:43 AM

Thanks Slgrieb, I do weekly backups on Fridays, so am gonna try re-formatting the USB external drive in a mo ... think I popped in here, to reassure myself ..........................