Seagate 500gb Partitioning and Convert to NTFS

i dont have a clue how to do this. ive read some articles in the internet but im afraid i didnt absorbed them very well.
now i need help. or maybe you could recommend a good dedicated software out there that help me get through this. any suggestions? thanks.

 

if your partitioning you wouldnt be converting, just formatting
it would have to be already formatted with FAT32 (or something else) inorder to convert and that would get erased (for lack of a better term) when your repartitioning anyway
youd only convert if keeping the partition and data


if this is an add on drive (seperate from an already installed OS)

Start > Run > (type) diskmgmt.msc > RClick unallocated space > Partition

if its a brand new install you will be prompted to partition and format

if you have questions regarding physically attaching the HDD supply a little more info as to what it has to play with, and if they (and it) are IDE, SATA, attached to a PCI card, USB or Firewire

for a step by step w\ pictures
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache...html seagate install&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1 (Google Cache of Seagate)
(it "should" intialize itself with the wizard)

 

i did as youve instructed but i dont see any other options when i right click the drive but format option.
when i select the format what i got is this. do i need to change anything or this options is already ok? thanks.

sorry forgot to tell you this is an external drive.

 

here the other screen shot. i only got format.

 

Add a better name to the Volume field?
Ice Czar would be nice

 

ah youd need to delete the partition thats there to repartition into more
your allowed 4 primary partitions or 3 primary and one extended partition with its own logical drives (as small as you like) natively under windows

personally Id use primaries only, thus youll never endup with an orphaned extended partition who's primary was accidentally deleted

 

there is no data on that partition right?
youd loose it repartitioning

 

ok thanks a lot. its now formatting. sorry Ice czar i decided to name it differently.

to be honest i only got the first part of what youve said about the partition (the delete thing). il update you later if i have trouble with the partitioning.
am i only allowed 4? i was thinking of partitioning it into a lot of smaller partions so that the defragment would just be a breeze.

oh well i guess i could do with 4. yeah, its out of the box so its pretty much empty. cheers!

 

you can "virtually" partition it into much smaller drives
they are called logical volumes, but they are infact all on one extended partition, and they need to be extended off a primary partition which under no circumstances would you delete while the extended partition and its logical drives where there and held data.


the way that works is partition tables are only so big and thus point to the extended partition table which then points to the various logical drives

see
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/structPartitions-c.html
&
http://partition.radified.com/



by using just primary partitions you can delete them with out having to worry about effecting data on other partitions, but orphaning an extended partition is a real pain in the butt to fix

 

wow. i was surprised i understood that. well said Ice czar! thanks so much for the help. god, you made my day!

 

Ive had just a little bit of practice explaining that before

But Thanx

 

ok i now have deleted the partition and now its nowhere to be found.

 

in the graphic to the right (enlarge the window if necessary)
Right Click the unallocated space > Partition

 

excellent! everything ok now. thank you. your a star!!