Formating a new external HDD

[lopdog]

Hi

I just got my new Transcend StoreJet 640 GB external hdd, and I have some small questions about this:

1. The drive came with two cables, one USB and one power-cable to connect to a second USB. The manual says I should use BOTH cables. Is this necessary?

2. The drive is formated as FAT32, but I have a lot of big files (4.5 GB and more), and I would like to format it as NTFS. Are there any reasons NOT to do this? And do I need to format the entire disk, or is it possible to change from FAT32 to NTFS without formating and losing files.

Thank you for your help.

 

[JMMD]

Use both cables. Format as NTFS, there's no reason not to.

 

[lopdog]

Thanks, will format to NTFS.
I tried with only one cable, it works well too, is it really necessary to use both? It takes up to USB connectors, and I only have 3

 

[LookinAround]

You can now appreciate why i always get external drives with their own AC power cable for my backup drive

USB drives with only USB cable must rely on the computer USB port for its power. And while this is usually OK there are times when USB power isn't enough or stable.

That extra cable is to deliver power to the drive from TWO USB ports (each USB port can deliver up to 500mA power per port).

You're probably going to be OK without it but again, depends, if you're going to put critical backups on that drive or not if you want to use the two cables or not

 

[lopdog]

Ok, good explanation. I'll keep that in mind.