NTFS to exFAT?

Em Xx · 19 Jul 2018 at 13:44

Hi all,

I just bought a second-hand 300GB external HDD. It arrived yesterday and I formatted it - after I formatted it, it became unrecognised so I have now re-formatted it to exFAT instead and it seems to have worked

I just wondered if it'll cause me a problem down the line? I am using Windows 10 O/S.

Thanks,

Em

EDIT: Fat32 to exFAT :rolleyes:

Rroff · 19 Jul 2018 at 13:46

FAT32 has a 4GB file size limitation - you want exFAT or NTFS really.

hornetstinger · 19 Jul 2018 at 13:50

NTFS is less lily to suffer from defragmentation better security why wpd you want to use fat32 unless usb stick where decide so want support ext3/4 or ntfs

Em Xx · 19 Jul 2018 at 14:02

Rroff said:
FAT32 has a 4GB file size limitation - you want exFAT or NTFS really.

Sorry it was exFAT, I'll edit my OP

Em Xx · 19 Jul 2018 at 14:15

hornetstinger said:
NTFS is less lily to suffer from defragmentation better security why wpd you want to use fat32 unless usb stick where decide so want support ext3/4 or ntfs

Sorry I meant exFAT, I have edited my OP. When I first plugged it in, it told me I needed to format it in order to use it and the option came up as NTFS so I formatted it to that but then when I went to use it said it was unrecognised so I did a bit of research and saw a post suggesting I re-format it to exFAT so I did and it worked but now I'm worried something will go wrong. I would format it back to NTFS but tried and my laptop simply won't accept it

Rroff · 19 Jul 2018 at 14:18

If you are using it in a USB3 port try a USB2 one if you have or vice versa - some drives don't like certain USB controllers.

Em Xx · 19 Jul 2018 at 14:23

Rroff said:
If you are using it in a USB3 port try a USB2 one if you have or vice versa - some drives don't like certain USB controllers.

Oooh of course I didn't think of that! I'll try that later, thanks

Em Xx · 20 Jul 2018 at 15:40

I tried the other USB ports and still unable to format it to NTFS - any suggestions? Thanks

Em Xx · 20 Jul 2018 at 15:44

https://ibb.co/kno36y

AETAaAS · 20 Jul 2018 at 16:06

You can use a partition manager, Aomei has a free version of Partition Assistant which will do the job.

CaptainCrash · 20 Jul 2018 at 19:41

Fire up a command prompt as administrator, then:

Code:

diskpart

list disk

select disk x (where 'x' is the number of the USB drive - be VERY careful, diskpart takes no prisoners)

clean

create partition primary

select partition 1

active

format fs=ntfs quick

exit

If this doesn't work, I'd be inclined to suspect a fault with the drive - you could download HDSentinel which works in trial mode for up to 30 days and can usually read the SMART data of most USB drives, and see if it reports anything untoward.