2 External USB HD for XP and ME

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New Orleans Novice - 21 May 2008 03:23 GMT

Hi,

I have 2 PC's. 1 with XP with an External USB HD. The 2nd PC has Win ME.
Is there such a thing as an External USB HD that will work with Win ME?

Where, when and how can I purchase it and install it?

Thanks for your help and tips ; Novice @ New Orleans Louisiana
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Patrick Keenan - 21 May 2008 03:33 GMT

> Hi,
>
> I have 2 PC's. 1 with XP with an External USB HD. The 2nd PC has Win ME.
> Is there such a thing as an External USB HD that will work with Win ME?

Sure. Many of them, if not most.

> Where, when and how can I purchase it and install it?

There are two issues. The first is the file system - FAT or NTFS. If the
external drive is formatted NTFS, you won't access it with ME. So, you
have to ensure that the drive is formatted FAT32. You will be limited as
to the size of files you can copy to this drive. For FAT32, the limit is
around 4 gigabytes.

The second issue is simple, you install the ME driver that comes with the
external drive or case. The driver is for the circuitry of the case, not
for the drive. It won't allow you to access NTFS volumes from WinME.

The way I approach the external drive issue is to choose a case that I like,
which will be around $25 - $45, and then a drive that I think I can trust;
and where I am, a bare half-terabyte SATA3 disk is under $90.

If you do need to access NTFS volumes from ME, you can do this over a
network connection. Connect the external drive to the XP system, share the
drive, then go to the ME system and map the drive to a letter.

HTH
-pk

<snippage>

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Mike Hall - MVP - 21 May 2008 03:37 GMT

>> Hi,
>>
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
>
> <snippage>

To work with both, you will have to use the FAT32 format..

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New Orleans Novice - 22 May 2008 13:52 GMT

Thanks to everyone for the help. The new EXT USB HD was partitioned into
100 Gigs each, formatted to Fat32, it all works well and perfect. Slick as
a cucumber.

As a token of thanks - I cooked you New Orleans Cajun Gumbo and Jambalaya
but a dark haired dark eyed Cajun girl hi-jacked your Cajun food in the
French Quarter.

Never take someone for granted
Hold every person close to your heart
Because you might wake up one day
And realize that you've lost a diamond
While you were too busy collecting stones

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Norman - 29 May 2008 00:39 GMT

It would have helped if he mentioned his end goal. That is whether backing
up a few files, a small transfer, or say a complete backup, a huge transfer.
My experience with USB2 is it is not extremely fast, not near as fast as
internal drive. And if connecting via LAN or running a LAN HDD it will be
still slower on a 100Mb. Depending upon MOBO onboard or ability to add,
Gigabit LAN would offer more hope if speed is needed.

You mentioned buying a box to put that super fast SATA in but did not make
it clear what interface on the box. I'll assume USB2 as that is the slant of
the thread, but would like to through in Firewire and external SATA.
NONovice did not let us know if his MOBO has built in Firewire or the
ability to add a card for it or the SATA external. If at least one of his
systems already has Firewire then he might want to consider a dual interface
external box, USB2 & Firewire.
And what seems to be the latest thing is external SATA. A few MOBO have it
built in, but this subject I do not know in depth, and I consider it worth
researching as to reliability, etc. since it is so much faster.

Although mentioned, the roadblock at 137GB HDD, a quick check of the Seagate
manual for my last drive says that can be overcome with an addin card for
systems XP pre SP1 and earlier. And that may be so of SATA as well, but I
have no experience that way. My experience with SATA has not been good
because WME has no drivers for it and my MOBO maker provided no drivers for
my onboard SATA. It does seem to work fine under XP SP2.

Since I have the room, I may check out one of those addin cards myself since
I'm dual booting , but it won't be for awhile.
Norman

>> Hi,
>>
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
>
> <snippage>

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