Problem with Lacie HDD

Jimmy1983 · 4 Nov 2007 at 17:29

Father has brought a Lacie HDD external as a backup, he is running XP Pro SP2, HDD doesn't work correctly with PC. Works fine with both off my PC's, Pro and Vista.

Tried all the USB ports, its somethings works but then then this message appears,

At the mo its formatted FAT32, is it worth re-formatting it to NTFS?

TriedandTested · 4 Nov 2007 at 20:17

Have you checked device manager for any of those yellow exclamation marks? Might just be missing some USB drivers or something. The device itself shouldn't need any (plug and play and all that).

Jimmy1983 · 4 Nov 2007 at 21:36

Think ive sorted it, needed to uncheck the power save mode. Just coping some data to check it now.

One other point you might be able to hlep me with is tell me what the cross means under network adapters, ULi PCI Fast Etherent Controller is for?!

Should I leave it as FAT32 or change it to NTFS?

TriedandTested · 4 Nov 2007 at 23:26

The 802.11 is your wireless card. The fast ethernet adapter is for your wired network port. It looks like it's disabled from looking at the screenshot there - that's fine if you never use it.

FAT32 or NTFS? For the Lacie? Your choice. This may help: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/russel_october01.mspx

whitecrook · 4 Nov 2007 at 23:54

Tried&Tested said:
FAT32 or NTFS? For the Lacie? Your choice. This may help: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/russel_october01.mspx

That article is dated 2001 and has quite a few errors and inaccuracies.

The OP should use NTFS, unless he needs to plug the drive in to a computer that's not running Windows.

Jimmy1983 · 5 Nov 2007 at 14:54

Cheers guys, yeah the LAN connection is disabled, thats fine as I use wireless connection.

Whats the big advantage off using NTFS instead, surly if its best it would have been formatted as NTFS straight out off the box?

whitecrook · 5 Nov 2007 at 17:18

Jimmy1983 said:
Cheers guys, yeah the LAN connection is disabled, thats fine as I use wireless connection.

Whats the big advantage off using NTFS instead, surly if its best it would have been formatted as NTFS straight out off the box?

ACLs, quotas, permissions, journaling, inheritance, better performace with many files, and larger volumes - it's just designed better.

FAT32 to put it bluntly - sucks ass. The only thing it's good for is the fact that mac os, linux, PCs, etc etc can all read and write it. E.g you can't have a file larger than 4GB on a FAT32 partition.

As for your second question, see the sentence above - not everyone uses windows you know. If you had a mac and it came NTFS formatted you'd get loads of folk complaining that they have to format to HFS or something.

Jimmy1983 · 6 Nov 2007 at 18:58

Just tried formatting and this message comes up, I can't remove the drive as its an external. Shall I just press yes?

whitecrook · 6 Nov 2007 at 20:50

Ummm.

You do know what a format does? It erases all your data and sets up a clean disk for use by the OS.

I hope you didn't have important data on there and you just formatted it.

That message means some app or something is accessing the drive - which makes me think you were already using the drive...

Jimmy1983 · 6 Nov 2007 at 21:29

whitecrook said:
Ummm.

You do know what a format does? It erases all your data and sets up a clean disk for use by the OS.

I hope you didn't have important data on there and you just formatted it.

That message means some app or something is accessing the drive - which makes me think you were already using the drive...

Iam posting in place off my dad here,

Only copied a few items across, nothing that is already backup-ed. Havent formatted yet, unsure what to do. Dont think iam using anything by Lacie other than having it connected via USB.

whitecrook · 6 Nov 2007 at 22:07

Jimmy1983 said:
Iam posting in place off my dad here,

Only copied a few items across, nothing that is already backup-ed. Havent formatted yet, unsure what to do. Dont think iam using anything by Lacie other than having it connected via USB.

Just leave it then. If it works then its fine.

Jimmy1983 · 10 Nov 2007 at 10:23

Yeah I would leave it but ideally I want NTFS as its better. Just tried again and after I press yes, a error comes up saying

Logical disk manger, the request can not be completed because the volume is open or in use.

All ive got open it FF and computer management. Not got any Lacie software open. :S

Kipper67 · 10 Nov 2007 at 12:00

Having the disk manager open probably counts as the drive being in use as would just having explorer open and viewing the drive contents.

Shut everything else down , open explorer , navigate so that your C: drive's contents is showing - not the portable drive- then right click on the portable drive and choose "format...." from the menu.

Once again the format will fail with the message about it being in use if you are trying to view the portable drives contents when you select it.

Sorry if this is a bit garbled ... need more coffee

Jimmy1983 · 10 Nov 2007 at 15:29

Kipper67 said:
Having the disk manager open probably counts as the drive being in use as would just having explorer open and viewing the drive contents.

Shut everything else down , open explorer , navigate so that your C: drive's contents is showing - not the portable drive- then right click on the portable drive and choose "format...." from the menu.

Once again the format will fail with the message about it being in use if you are trying to view the portable drives contents when you select it.

Sorry if this is a bit garbled ... need more coffee

Should have thought off doing it that way, cheers done it now.