Backing Up pc with fat32 hd?

SimonC

SimonC

SimonC

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7 Oct 2003
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Sure I posted in here yesterday, maybe I imagined it. :p

I want to get a 500gb external drive to use as a backup drive for the pc, but I also want to use the same drive for playing videos through the xbox 360 which will only recognise fat32 (why!)

So will having a fat32 hd be ok for backing up the pc?
I know there's a 4gb limit but I don't have anything that big.
 
If you just need to back up individual files, then as long as they're all <4GB you should be good to go.

Things get a bit trickier if you need to create a backup image of your entire system partition - if that's the case, you'll need a program which can split the image into <4GB chunks. IIRC Acronis True Image does this automatically when backing up to a FAT32 volume, and Clonezilla also has the option... not sure about other specific apps, but I guess it would be a common feature. :)
 
Ah excellent! didn't know you could partition the disk and use two different filling systems.

I'll do it that way.

Cheers people.
 
Partitioning is probably best, but I know Acronis True Image can split archives at a specified size - it has an automatic function which may detect FAT32 and adjust the archive size accordingly too.
 
buy a media centre specific pc, atom machines with ION can do it fine, the 360 and PS3 are way too loud to be used as video players
 
Yer I have true image, so I'll use that to partition the drive.

Bledd, yes the xbox is loud but at the volume my folks watch at, its not a problem. :p
 
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