Hard Drive format

Icemanbrfc

Honorary Master
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
21,644
Reaction score
4,711
Location
Cape Town
Hi guys

I have a 1TB full of various series,movies, pictures and music. I need to format this drive, but don't have another hard drive i can move these things over to.

My question is, is there another way I can back up these things, while I format the drive? My laptop drive is also small, so I won't be able to use that either.

Any suggestions
 
Try to create a new partition on the drive with free space, move it there (or at least the most important stuff you can fit), then back it up there, format the other partition and then delete the second partition again and extend the one now containing the movies... just google the best tools.
 
Why do you need to format?

edit: for werfie's answer try EaseUS partition manager
 
Last edited:
This is due to my WD TV hub not recognising my drive. So I want to change file system, but not sure if I could change the file system without the need to completely format the drive.
 
This is due to my WD TV hub not recognising my drive. So I want to change file system, but not sure if I could change the file system without the need to completely format the drive.

NTFS -> FAT32 you will have to, best would be to follow the partitioning advice.
 
This is due to my WD TV hub not recognising my drive. So I want to change file system, but not sure if I could change the file system without the need to completely format the drive.

What is it currently formatted as? WD TV supports all common file systems (FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and HFS).
 
The issue I'm having, is that the WD TV won't recognise my drive. It recognises my 2.5 inch self powered drive, but not the 3.5 inch one. I know from a previous chat to the guys, they did indicate that perhaps my drive is failing. However, where I'm stumped, is that my pc and ps3 picks up the drive within seconds.
 
I have a drive on one of my PC's formatted as NTFS; ditto a drive array on a second PC. Both are picked up by my WD TV Live unit.

It sounds more like you have a sharing issue.

Have you searched the Support forums on the Western Digital website ?

NB: I note that you are referring to a USB drive. Unless the drive is manufactured by WD then - as is emphasised by WD on their website - you are facing a crap-shoot, i.e. if your drive is recognised then cool, otherwise don't bother to call WD. I have a 2 TB Seagate that the WD doesn't recognise.
 
Last edited:
That sucks though.. I have no issues with the Mede8er picking up any external, nor with the PS3. On my previous Apacer media player, I had no issues either. So WD are the Apple of media players then
 
Can you not put the pics on Flickr (1Tb) and the rest onto Google drive (15Gb) and/or Mega (50Gb) per account.
For the rest, the movies and series, I would delete them if I have watched them, and re-download if they are that important ti keep.

Drive is empty - Format.

Well thats how I would solve the problem ......
 
Call a friend. Back up your stuff to their drive, and then mess with it. Anytime you start playing around with format or partition options on a hard drive, there is always an element of risk involved. Best practice is to have a backup. If your drive is picking up on your PS3, I assume it's formatted as FAT32 ?
 
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X