How to: USB to read Large drives

[hotpants]

I recently bought a Maxtor Basics Portable Storage USB drive. Plug it into the car and no workie. Slap it on my laptop and realize its NTFS. Car doesnt seem to be able to read NTFS. So I set about figuring out a way to convert all 320gigs to Fat32. Only problem is XP wont let you format anything over 32gigs to Fat32. So here is what I did to get it to work:

First I deleted the 300gig NTFS partition using SwissKnife V3 (freeware). Then I created a 32gig Fat32 partition using the same program. From there I used Easeus Partition Manager Personal 1.6.4 (freeware) and expanded the 32 gig partition to 300gig. Note: you lose some space with larger drives. just the way it is unfortunately.

Proceeded to load my 8+gigs of music and the car recognized it. I then proceeded to rock out:headbang:

Just typed up this little process in case you run into a similar issue.

[imported_NuovoTech]

Only problem is XP wont let you format anything over 32gigs to Fat32.

True, but DOS will let you format any size partition to Fat32. Just obtain a W98 system floppy disk & reboot to a DOS prompt. Type "Format x:" & hit enter..."x" = partition to format(be sure you choose correctly!). :thumbup:

[bugaboo]

am i missing something here? why would you need 300G when you have only 8G of music? does a bigger drive make the scanning or indexing time longer?

[hotpants]

Originally Posted by NuovoTech

True, but DOS will let you format any size partition to Fat32. Just obtain a W98 system floppy disk & reboot to a DOS prompt. Type "Format x:" & hit enter..."x" = partition to format(be sure you choose correctly!). :thumbup:

true. but seeing as how systems are coming without floppy drives nowadays this is an easy way to do it inside of windows.:biggrin: no floppy needed. just an internet connection.

am i missing something here? why would you need 300G when you have only 8G of music? does a bigger drive make the scanning or indexing time longer?

sorry didnt give you the whole story. i have way more than 8 gigs. that 8 gigs was a watered down version of the amount of music I have available. i picked and chose what i wanted on the drive. but not i will probably never have to worry about space for a very long time and i can load all my CD's and music obtained by other means.

as far as indexing. nope same speed as my USB drive. i have around 9 gigs on it right now. ill update once i fill up more space to let everyone know if indexing speed decreases with the amount of space being used. my bet is yes it will.

[DTNJNQ]

Did the drive work straight off the usb port or did you need an external power supply?

[hotpants]

straight off the USB port.

[Citizen Z]

The 125gb on my 160gb iPod takes 4-ever to index. Like, literally an hour or longer.

[Lester]

I am going to mount this storage array in the trunk, I will have 14 Terabytes of storage, in a RAID 5 array. I am going to use an IBM Fiber Channel to USB converter, and power it with an inverter connected directly to the battery. That is what I am going to do.

[rodi]

Originally Posted by Lester

I am going to mount this storage array in the trunk, I will have 14 Terabytes of storage, in a RAID 5 array. I am going to use an IBM Fiber Channel to USB converter, and power it with an inverter connected directly to the battery. That is what I am going to do.

HA! you sure that'll be enough for all your music?

[1Ronnie]

Thanks for that, I'll try and get around to adding this to the FAQ at some stage. As a follow up question, are you using the USB port to power the drive, or an additional external power supply?

[ad78]

you reach your destination before loads all you music. im using 32gb usb patriot flash drive. and works perfectly.