You don't have to backup and format to get it NTFS, you can just type this:
convert drive letter: /fs:ntfs
Source
Are you sure that will work with removable USB drives, I don't think so. You are talking about regular fixed hard drives.
ummm...let's think about this.....
your removable USB drive.... does it have a file system on it?
It must or Windows couldn't read it.
So why would you think removable USB drive is any different when converting file systems?
Your external hard drive is formatted as Fat32 as are many externals. In order to save files over 4gb you will have to re-format the drive. Go to My computer and right click on the drive and choose format. Save your data first of course. Re-format as NTFS. The only problem is that when you do NTFS on a removable drive you will have to go through the whole unplug thing via the tray icon. In other words you must stop the device before unplugging. With Fat32 you unplug and plug at will. In fact you might have to disable quick remove to format NTFS.
never never never unplug without stopping the device -- unless you like to reformat itWith Fat32 you unplug and plug at will. In fact you might have to disable quick remove to format NTFS
gguerra
Just re-read in more detail your earlier post. I think you're mixing up different issues
1. Write caching.
You can get better disk performance if you enable write caching for a disk drive. This means Windows caches several disk writes together in cache before it physically writes it all to the drive. If you set a drive for no caching Windows will perform each write to the drive as they are issued. one-at-a-time
2. Write caching can give better performance.. but can also give headaches
Problem with write caching is if Windows crashes or you unplug a USB drive there are several writes that never make it to disk. This can cause file and file system corruption depending on what it was not getting written.
3. Stopping a USB device for removal
Stopping the device before removal mainly applies when write caching is set. in that case, windows will write all cache to disk before stopping the device. Is far less likely to cause problems if windows is applying writes one-at-a-time as they occur.
4. This is an issue for both NTFS and FAT32. Maybe a bit more so for NTFS
Because NTFS tends to do more writes to the disk. So greater chance of problems if things get interrupted
Control your options be selecting a disk drive in device manager, rt click Properties, click Policies. Set the options. Also see this.
Whats with your attitude in this thread?Are you sure that will work with removable USB drives, I don't think so. You are talking about regular fixed hard drives.