External Hard Drive Question

[kreidicp]

When I used CD-RW's for my .tib file , I noticed the write speed was very much quicker writing to a blank disk rather than a formatted disk !

As I want to use my new Maxtor 80GB Ext HD USB 2.0 just for .tib files ( for a 7GB NTFS back-up from my only internal HD ) , should I blank the factory pre-formatted FAT 32 , or would I be better to reformat to NTFS ?

If I have to blank , how would I do this please ( as with the CD-RW there was a convenient Blank CD tab in the Roxio Easy CD prog ?

Using Auto (which would split the .tib files , would not allow me to Explore the file , I believe. That was certainly the case with a 6 CD-RW's Image File.

Many thanks to P and M for their replies yesterday . They helped give me bigger perspective .

Any help much appreciated.
ken
Dell Dimension 4400 XPSP2 Home , no network

[Peter2150]

I have two Western Digital external drives that came the same way. I partitioned and reformatted them. For True Image I went with NTFS format.

Pete

[Menorcaman]

Hello again Ken

-{ Quote: "When I used CD-RW's for my .tib file , I noticed the write speed was very much quicker writing to a blank disk rather than a formatted disk !" }-Using Nero Burning ROM, it's only necessary to "Quick Erase" previous data before burning the .tib files. I'm not familiar with Roxio Easy CD and it's specific CD settings but it could be that, if the disk isn't blank, Roxio deletes or formats prior burning.

-{ Quote: "As I want to use my new Maxtor 80GB Ext HD USB 2.0 just for .tib files ( for a 7GB NTFS back-up from my only internal HD ) , should I blank the factory pre-formatted FAT 32 , or would I be better to reformat to NTFS ?" }-It's your choice as to whether you leave it pre-formatted as FAT32 or reformat to NTFS. Remember though, if the HD is NTFS formatted you wouldn't be able to "see" anything if you connected it to a Windows 9x/ME machine.

-{ Quote: "If I have to blank , how would I do this please ( as with the CD-RW there was a convenient Blank CD tab in the Roxio Easy CD prog ?" }-Not a term I recognise for a HD but I would equate it to carrying out a FDISK (partitioning). This isn't necessary unless you want more than a single partition on your new drive (If you decide to repartition you'll need to carry out a Format afterwards).

-{ Quote: "Using Auto (which would split the .tib files , would not allow me to Explore the file , I believe. That was certainly the case with a 6 CD-RW's Image File." }-Not correct. You can mount and explore an image provided all the corresponding .tib files are in one partition, directory or folder (to mount/explore an image that had been split across a number of CDs/DVDs requires that all the .tib files be copied back into a single folder on a HD first).

Hope the above helps.

Regards

[Acronis Support]

Hello Ken,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

You shouldn't blank your external hard disk drive.

Please also note that Acronis True Image is capable of exploring the splitted image that is saved on hard disk drive and all the volumes of this image reside in the same directory. Please also read the following: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/faq.html#12

Thank you.