# Backing up and Reformating Hard Drive



## Wags (Jun 2, 2002)

Running Windows XP-Pro on a Dell Dimension 8300. Have a problem I haven't been able to find a solution for other than scrubing the hard drive and starting over. 

I am backing up using Carbonite.com - but the initial back-up is very slow going and won't be done before my work month starts on the 6th. I need to get the system working again before then! 

I have a 300 GB external hard drive I can back the system up to - but when I try to use the back-up system tool that comes with XP-Pro I get and error msg saying only 4GB can be written due to FAT32. I have nearly 120GB that need to be backed up. Can anyone tell me if there is a way around the 4GB transfer thing?


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

Wags said:


> Running Windows XP-Pro on a Dell Dimension 8300. Have a problem I haven't been able to find a solution for other than scrubing the hard drive and starting over.


That's usually the best choice if your computer is infected with Windows. 



Wags said:


> I have a 300 GB external hard drive I can back the system up to - but when I try to use the back-up system tool that comes with XP-Pro I get and error msg saying only 4GB can be written due to FAT32. I have nearly 120GB that need to be backed up. Can anyone tell me if there is a way around the 4GB transfer thing?


No, it's a file system limitation. You'll have to repartition the external drive with NTFS instead of FAT32. You could do the whole drive in NTFS, or resize the FAT32 partition to make room for an NTFS partition big enough for your backup. Unfortunately I can tell you how to do that with Linux, but not with XP. But I'm sure someone else can help out.

You could do the whole operation pretty quickly with a Linux live CD and a bit of a learning curve, but that may be more than you want to tackle at the moment.

-Dan


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

First you should only be backing up your data. NO need to backup all files. If your machine has been running for a while a good cleanup can help.
Backup Documents and Setting directly. Make sure you get the hidden directories. You will also need to backup any "data" not stored outside the my docs area.

As far as backups go, shutdown all your apps and services and just do a copy. I like the simple replicator ptreplicator http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp


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## pixelphotograph (Apr 8, 2007)

why not just drag and drop the files you need backed up to the external hard drive instead of reformatting anything. Dont use the backup software junk. 4 gig would also fit on a dvd just fine as well if you have a dvd burner.


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## Photo-bug (Jan 17, 2007)

If the drive is already formated with fat 32 it will have to be reformated with ntfs. NTFS is a much better file system than fat32. If yoe are running an xp machine it should be pretty easy goto

control panel
administrative tools
computer managment
storage
disk mangement

Once under disk managment you should see a list of all your active drives on the right side of the screen. Choose your new drive, choose carefully to make sure you have the right drive, you should first delete the partition then create a new partition and format it choosing the NTFS option. highlighting the drive then right clicking it will give you those options.

My experiance with backup programs has really been crappy, I can't stand creating image files, compressing, uncompressing, time lags, and inconsistant data(meaning it doesn't always work) I agree with the previuos poster just copy the data as it is, It's a better option, easier to see, quicker to access + the cost of storage is so cheap why waste your time and possible data corruption.

Try a program called total commander, it's a very powerful file manger that works very well with windows and works a lot better than drag and drop or explorer.


Hope that helps


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## pixelphotograph (Apr 8, 2007)

I agree with photobug I have never seen a good backup software program and dont like the weird things they do. Burn to disc or drag and drop to an external drive.


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## Wags (Jun 2, 2002)

Thanks for the info. Reformated the hard drive on Thursday, and most everything is up and running again!


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