Partitioning an external hard drive???

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timmy001

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#37265 9-Jul-2009 19:55

I have an new set top box that will allow me to record to a usb device, but it has to be in FAT32 format. I also have an external hard drive (500GB Seagate Free Agent) which is in NTFS format. Can I partition my external hard drive to have a FAT32 sector so I can plug it into my set top box? If so can I do it with data on the hard drive or do I have to remove it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Tim.

Norton 360

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geeksonwheels

16 posts

Geek

#233663 10-Jul-2009 14:01

Best idea is to backup the data on your drive just in case. Setup a new partition on it using Disc Management (under Admin Tools in control panel) and set file system option to FAT.

d3Xt3r

658 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#235266 14-Jul-2009 17:36

There are utilities that allow you to convert NTFS-to-FAT32 without loosing data. Unfortunately the only decent one I know of is Symantec PartitionMagic, but it's not free and no longer under development. I would second the above advice and backup the data first.

Regs

4065 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Snowflake

#235341 14-Jul-2009 20:30

even if you find and use a tool to convert, i would backup the data first.

you might be able to shrink the NTFS partition using free tools (do a defrag first to get the blocks consecutive) and the create a new fat32 partition

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