External Drive format issue

Xantom · Oct 13, 2007

I recently purchased an internal 2.5 laptop drive to replace my current drive. I am doing this simply because I need more drive space. I also purchased an OK Gear external drive enclosure.

The problem is when I hook up the drive via USB, my laptop recognizes the drive and says that is ready for use, but when I attempt to locate the drive in my computer, it is not there. I am assuming this is because the drive is not formatted. I have connected to my other PC's and the same thing is true with them.

1. Is this the issue? If so how do I format the drive, since it will not assign it a drive name(letter)?

2. Once formatted and the drive is recognized can I simply copy my old drive to the new drive and be up and running? I am assuming it is not that easy.

3. It is a Gateway laptop with XP home installed, how should go about transferring the OS, if I can at all? Can I use the recovery disks I made?

I have never done this so any suggestions are appreciated, thanks in advance.

aja · Oct 14, 2007

Xantom said:
I recently purchased an internal 2.5 laptop drive to replace my current drive. I am doing this simply because I need more drive space. I also purchased an OK Gear external drive enclosure.

The problem is when I hook up the drive via USB, my laptop recognizes the drive and says that is ready for use, but when I attempt to locate the drive in my computer, it is not there. I am assuming this is because the drive is not formatted. I have connected to my other PC's and the same thing is true with them.

1. Is this the issue? If so how do I format the drive, since it will not assign it a drive name(letter)?

2. Once formatted and the drive is recognized can I simply copy my old drive to the new drive and be up and running? I am assuming it is not that easy.

3. It is a Gateway laptop with XP home installed, how should go about transferring the OS, if I can at all? Can I use the recovery disks I made?

I have never done this so any suggestions are appreciated, thanks in advance.

1: Go to control panel > administrative tools > Computer management

click on disk management, under storage, on the left

right click the drive (external drive) and format it. You can also assign drive letters etc.

Make sure you format the correct drive so that you do not lose all your data

Before I go further, what recovery disks have you made?

Xantom · Oct 20, 2007

aja said:
1: Go to control panel > administrative tools > Computer management

click on disk management, under storage, on the left

right click the drive (external drive) and format it. You can also assign drive letters etc.

Make sure you format the correct drive so that you do not lose all your data

Before I go further, what recovery disks have you made?

Thanks for your post aja, sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner. I tried what you have suggested and but I don't the drive does not appear as an external drive any where. I do not get the option to assign a drive letter, and I get no option to format, however I do get the option to partition. Should I partition to the size of the disk and then see if it will give me the option to format?

Know Nuttin · Oct 20, 2007

Yes, you need to partition before you format.

QuietIce · Oct 20, 2007

Yes, you will have to create a logical partition before you can do anything else. This is how MS recognizes the drive. After you do that you should be able to format and pick your format type, FAT32 or NTFS. Then you will have the option to change drive letters if you wish, which you should already be able to do with the C:\ and D:\ drives present. However, I wouldn't suggest changing those at this time.

As to how you transfer the OS - I never needed to :shrug:

so I'll leave that to others who have.
I do know it's not as simple as "drag-n-drop" ...

Xantom · Oct 20, 2007

Got it, it now recognizes as drive F:\. Thanks for your posts again.

Any suggestions on how to transfer the OS? I have recovery disks, but I am not sure if that will work. Thanks.

Xantom · Oct 21, 2007

I copied the recovery partition from my old drive, to the new drive. I then used the recovery disks to restore the OS it's up and running fine.

QuietIce · Oct 21, 2007

Mmm, wonder if it would be that simple for me ...?

PLOBBY · Oct 21, 2007

Simple way to do that is just use ghost.

External Drive format issue

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