external harddrive question please help at DVinfo.net

Patrick Falls · January 13th, 2004, 12:42 PM

i have a western digital 160 gig usb 2.0 7200rpm running on windows xp and it does not let me drag and drop huge files to it. i try and drag 4 gig video files into it and it says " cannot copy there isn't enough disk space try running disk clean up ".

is there a setting in xp where i can manage large file transfers from drive to drive?

will i get what i'm looking for in a firewire external drive?

i also tried to partition it into an NTFS drive but after i completed all of the steps in partition magic, rebooted my machine it gave me an error, and remained a FAT32 drive.

Michael Wisniewski · January 13th, 2004, 12:50 PM

You need to format the drive with NTFS. FAT32 doesn't support files over 2GB - that's why you can't drag the files over.

Use Windows XP to convert it to NTFS.

Open the:
- Control Panel
-- Administrative Tools
--- Computer Management

Click on Disk Management, it should be under the Storage section

Right-click the drive and Format as an NTFS drive

Patrick Falls · January 13th, 2004, 01:19 PM

what should i put for allocation unit size? it gives me choices from 64k up to 8192.

i do need to enable file and folder compression right?

Michael Wisniewski · January 13th, 2004, 06:56 PM

Use the defaults settings when formatting. For most purposes though, any setting will work.

I wouldn't recommend using file and folder compression - it will make your hard disk and CPU work overtime.

Patrick Falls · January 13th, 2004, 08:27 PM

i'm happy i waited, i was going to select the compression box. thanks a million.

Glenn Chan · January 13th, 2004, 08:30 PM

I doubt Windows would squeeze much compression out of DV files.

January 13th, 2004, 12:42 PM	#1
Patrick Falls Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Augusta georgia 15min. from Aiken S.Carolina and 2 hours from Atlanta Posts: 105	external harddrive question please help i have a western digital 160 gig usb 2.0 7200rpm running on windows xp and it does not let me drag and drop huge files to it. i try and drag 4 gig video files into it and it says " cannot copy there isn't enough disk space try running disk clean up ". is there a setting in xp where i can manage large file transfers from drive to drive? will i get what i'm looking for in a firewire external drive? i also tried to partition it into an NTFS drive but after i completed all of the steps in partition magic, rebooted my machine it gave me an error, and remained a FAT32 drive.

January 13th, 2004, 01:19 PM	#3
Patrick Falls Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Augusta georgia 15min. from Aiken S.Carolina and 2 hours from Atlanta Posts: 105	cool what should i put for allocation unit size? it gives me choices from 64k up to 8192. i do need to enable file and folder compression right?

January 13th, 2004, 08:27 PM	#5
Patrick Falls Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Augusta georgia 15min. from Aiken S.Carolina and 2 hours from Atlanta Posts: 105	whoa i'm happy i waited, i was going to select the compression box. thanks a million.

January 13th, 2004, 12:50 PM	#2
Michael Wisniewski Wrangler Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Makati, Metro Manila Posts: 2,706 Images: 32	You need to format the drive with NTFS. FAT32 doesn't support files over 2GB - that's why you can't drag the files over. Use Windows XP to convert it to NTFS. Open the: - Control Panel -- Administrative Tools --- Computer Management Click on Disk Management, it should be under the Storage section Right-click the drive and Format as an NTFS drive

January 13th, 2004, 06:56 PM	#4
Michael Wisniewski Wrangler Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Makati, Metro Manila Posts: 2,706 Images: 32	Use the defaults settings when formatting. For most purposes though, any setting will work. I wouldn't recommend using file and folder compression - it will make your hard disk and CPU work overtime.

January 13th, 2004, 08:30 PM	#6
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	I doubt Windows would squeeze much compression out of DV files.