Guest Joe Starin Posted October 6, 2008 Posted October 6, 2008 Fast question: Have a Dell 8600 laptop with an NTFS file system. Want to back up the laptop to a Western Digital external hard drive that I believe is formated FAT32. Can I do this? I've heard that if you want to back up data from one hard drive to another, the formatting of both drives must be the same. Is this true? Thanks. Joe
Guest Big_Al Posted October 6, 2008 Posted October 6, 2008 Re: FAT32 or NTFS for backup? Joe Starin wrote: > Fast question: Have a Dell 8600 laptop with an NTFS file system. Want to > back up the laptop to a Western Digital external hard drive that I believe > is formated FAT32. Can I do this? I've heard that if you want to back up > data from one hard drive to another, the formatting of both drives must be > the same. Is this true? Thanks. Joe > > No its not true. But Fat32 does have a filesize limitation of 4gig. So most backup programs that create a zip like single file, may exceed 4 gig and you will get errors. But 8 gigs of individual files you can copy / backup with no issue.
Guest JS Posted October 6, 2008 Posted October 6, 2008 Re: FAT32 or NTFS for backup? If you are just using the external drive for file backups then as Big_Al mentioned there is a file size limitation with FAT32. However if you are looking for a comprehensive backup solution that protects you even if you should have a hard disk failure then consider creating an Image Backup of your laptop's drive to the external hard drive. Norton Ghost - has a 30 day trial available (Trial does not allow you to create a Bootable Restore CD AFAK) http://www.symantec.com/norton/products/overview.jsp?pcid=br&pvid=ghost14 Product Review "Symantec's 14th Ghost": http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Norton-Ghost--Review-78775.shtml True Image - has a 15 day trial version available, (Trial version can create a Restore CD, but I have not verified this yet) http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/ JS http://www.pagestart.com "Joe Starin" <joespamfreestarin@ameritech.net> wrote in message news:sTqGk.2812$YU2.1004@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com... > Fast question: Have a Dell 8600 laptop with an NTFS file system. Want to > back up the laptop to a Western Digital external hard drive that I believe > is formated FAT32. Can I do this? I've heard that if you want to back up > data from one hard drive to another, the formatting of both drives must be > the same. Is this true? Thanks. Joe >
Guest Joe Starin Posted October 6, 2008 Posted October 6, 2008 Re: FAT32 or NTFS for backup? Thanks for both replies. Yes, I want to create an image backup of my laptop's hard drive to the external drive. (Had a hard BSOD crash the other day, Windows shut itself down. Then the PC checked the file system twice, deleted a corrupt attribute record, found some unreadable segments, even found that "the volume is dirty.") Was able to do a System Restore, but only in Safe mode. Everything seems stable now, but this was a wake-up call to do regular backups. Thanks for the suggestions. I've heard good things about True Image; not as many good things about Ghost since Norton took it over. Big_Al, will I be able to effectively back up my hard hard drive, given the 4GB FAT32 limit? I can format the external hard drive as NTFS -- will only lose one old backup of my other PC in the process. Or should I just forge ahead? Joe "JS" <@> wrote in message news:Oc9ExH9JJHA.5904@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > If you are just using the external drive for file backups then as > Big_Al mentioned there is a file size limitation with FAT32. > > However if you are looking for a comprehensive backup > solution that protects you even if you should have a > hard disk failure then consider creating an Image Backup > of your laptop's drive to the external hard drive. > > Norton Ghost - has a 30 day trial available > (Trial does not allow you to create a Bootable Restore CD AFAK) > http://www.symantec.com/norton/products/overview.jsp?pcid=br&pvid=ghost14 > Product Review "Symantec's 14th Ghost": > http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Norton-Ghost--Review-78775.shtml > > True Image - has a 15 day trial version available, > (Trial version can create a Restore CD, but I have not verified this yet) > http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/ > > JS > http://www.pagestart.com > > > "Joe Starin" <joespamfreestarin@ameritech.net> wrote in message > news:sTqGk.2812$YU2.1004@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com... >> Fast question: Have a Dell 8600 laptop with an NTFS file system. Want to >> back up the laptop to a Western Digital external hard drive that I >> believe is formated FAT32. Can I do this? I've heard that if you want to >> back up data from one hard drive to another, the formatting of both >> drives must be the same. Is this true? Thanks. Joe >> > >
Guest smlunatick Posted October 6, 2008 Posted October 6, 2008 Re: FAT32 or NTFS for backup? On Oct 6, 6:05 pm, "Joe Starin" <joespamfreesta...@ameritech.net> wrote: > Thanks for both replies. Yes, I want to create an image backup of my > laptop's hard drive to the external drive. (Had a hard BSOD crash the other > day, Windows shut itself down. Then the PC checked the file system twice, > deleted a corrupt attribute record, found some unreadable segments, even > found that "the volume is dirty.") Was able to do a System Restore, but only > in Safe mode. > > Everything seems stable now, but this was a wake-up call to do regular > backups. Thanks for the suggestions. I've heard good things about True > Image; not as many good things about Ghost since Norton took it over. > > Big_Al, will I be able to effectively back up my hard hard drive, given the > 4GB FAT32 limit? I can format the external hard drive as NTFS -- will only > lose one old backup of my other PC in the process. Or should I just forge > ahead? > > Joe > > "JS" <@> wrote in messagenews:Oc9ExH9JJHA.5904@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > > If you are just using the external drive for file backups then as > > Big_Al mentioned there is a file size limitation with FAT32. > > > However if you are looking for a comprehensive backup > > solution that protects you even if you should have a > > hard disk failure then consider creating an Image Backup > > of your laptop's drive to the external hard drive. > > > Norton Ghost - has a 30 day trial available > > (Trial does not allow you to create a Bootable Restore CD AFAK) > >http://www.symantec.com/norton/products/overview.jsp?pcid=br&pvid=gho... > > Product Review "Symantec's 14th Ghost": > >http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Norton-Ghost--Review-78775.s... > > > True Image - has a 15 day trial version available, > > (Trial version can create a Restore CD, but I have not verified this yet) > >http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/ > > > JS > >http://www.pagestart.com > > > "Joe Starin" <joespamfreesta...@ameritech.net> wrote in message > >news:sTqGk.2812$YU2.1004@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com... > >> Fast question: Have a Dell 8600 laptop with an NTFS file system. Want to > >> back up the laptop to a Western Digital external hard drive that I > >> believe is formated FAT32. Can I do this? I've heard that if you want to > >> back up data from one hard drive to another, the formatting of both > >> drives must be the same. Is this true? Thanks. Joe It really does not matter which format type you use. When you will do an image backup copy, it will change the format to match the one used on the "source" drive. If you want to do a image file copy (backup to an image file stored on a different drive) then you need to use NTFS.
Guest Jim Posted October 6, 2008 Posted October 6, 2008 Re: FAT32 or NTFS for backup? Replies inline--- "Joe Starin" <joespamfreestarin@ameritech.net> wrote in message news:VzrGk.2816$YU2.2670@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com... > Thanks for both replies. Yes, I want to create an image backup of my > laptop's hard drive to the external drive. (Had a hard BSOD crash the > other day, Windows shut itself down. Then the PC checked the file system > twice, deleted a corrupt attribute record, found some unreadable segments, > even found that "the volume is dirty.") Was able to do a System Restore, > but only in Safe mode. > > Everything seems stable now, but this was a wake-up call to do regular > backups. Thanks for the suggestions. I've heard good things about True > Image; not as many good things about Ghost since Norton took it over. > > Big_Al, will I be able to effectively back up my hard hard drive, given > the 4GB FAT32 limit? I can format the external hard drive as NTFS -- will > only lose one old backup of my other PC in the process. Or should I just > forge ahead? > > Joe > > "JS" <@> wrote in message news:Oc9ExH9JJHA.5904@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... >> If you are just using the external drive for file backups then as >> Big_Al mentioned there is a file size limitation with FAT32. >> >> However if you are looking for a comprehensive backup >> solution that protects you even if you should have a >> hard disk failure then consider creating an Image Backup >> of your laptop's drive to the external hard drive. >> >> Norton Ghost - has a 30 day trial available >> (Trial does not allow you to create a Bootable Restore CD AFAK) >> http://www.symantec.com/norton/products/overview.jsp?pcid=br&pvid=ghost14 >> Product Review "Symantec's 14th Ghost": >> http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Norton-Ghost--Review-78775.shtml >> >> True Image - has a 15 day trial version available, >> (Trial version can create a Restore CD, but I have not verified this yet) >> http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/ >> >> JS >> http://www.pagestart.com >> >> >> "Joe Starin" <joespamfreestarin@ameritech.net> wrote in message >> news:sTqGk.2812$YU2.1004@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com... >>> Fast question: Have a Dell 8600 laptop with an NTFS file system. Want to >>> back up the laptop to a Western Digital external hard drive that I >>> believe is formated FAT32. Can I do this? I've heard that if you want to >>> back up data from one hard drive to another, the formatting of both >>> drives must be the same. Is this true? Thanks. Joe >>> >> >> > > I don't know whether you can format your external hard drive as NTFS or not. I only know that I did. Mine is a 250 GB USB drive. If you clone your system drive to a USB drive, as this is a bit by bit copy, the format of the target will be the same as the source. I clone my data disk to a USB drive once per month. That time frame is adequate for my needs, but it might not be adequate for yours. By the way, it takes this rather slow system 2 hours at least for the cloning operation. Jim
Guest HeyBub Posted October 6, 2008 Posted October 6, 2008 Re: FAT32 or NTFS for backup? Joe Starin wrote: > Thanks for both replies. Yes, I want to create an image backup of my > laptop's hard drive to the external drive. (Had a hard BSOD crash the > other day, Windows shut itself down. Then the PC checked the file > system twice, deleted a corrupt attribute record, found some > unreadable segments, even found that "the volume is dirty.") Was able > to do a System Restore, but only in Safe mode. > > Everything seems stable now, but this was a wake-up call to do regular > backups. Thanks for the suggestions. I've heard good things about True > Image; not as many good things about Ghost since Norton took it over. > > Big_Al, will I be able to effectively back up my hard hard drive, > given the 4GB FAT32 limit? I can format the external hard drive as > NTFS -- will only lose one old backup of my other PC in the process. > Or should I just forge ahead? > While it shouldn't matter for an image backup, NTFS is superior to FAT32 in that NTFS is self-correcting. That is, for many errors, NTFS can detect and fix them on the fly. Similar errors would bring a FAT32 system to its knees.
Guest JS Posted October 6, 2008 Posted October 6, 2008 Re: FAT32 or NTFS for backup? The image back file created on your external hard drive will be about 40% smaller in size (file compression) then the amount of used space on the drive or partition you are backing up. So for example if your C: partition currently has 10GB used, then the image backup file will be about 6GB in size on your external drive. If the external drive is formatted FAT32 the image backup software is smart enough (knowing the 4GB file size limit when using FAT32) to break the backup into multiple files, usually the first file will be 4GB and the remaining part of the backup will be stored in the second file. When or if you need to restore the image backup the software knows its stored in two files and will have no problem restoring you PC back to the date and time you created the last image backup or an earlier backup if you create (like I do) backups on a frequent basis and save each backup to it's own folder. If you reformat the external drive to NTFS then the entire 6GB backup will end up as a single file. So in my case I use Ghost (Version 10) and create folder names like: Ghost 091508, Ghost 081408, Ghost 072008, Etc. This is a quick way to identify the backup creation dates. Hope that answers your question, sorry I was late in responding but I was using my test pc to evaluate Norton's NIS 2009 and used one of my earlier image backup's that restored my test PC back to XP SP2 before I installed NIS. Got a little side tracked. JS http://www.pagestart.com "Joe Starin" <joespamfreestarin@ameritech.net> wrote in message news:VzrGk.2816$YU2.2670@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com... > Thanks for both replies. Yes, I want to create an image backup of my > laptop's hard drive to the external drive. (Had a hard BSOD crash the > other day, Windows shut itself down. Then the PC checked the file system > twice, deleted a corrupt attribute record, found some unreadable segments, > even found that "the volume is dirty.") Was able to do a System Restore, > but only in Safe mode. > > Everything seems stable now, but this was a wake-up call to do regular > backups. Thanks for the suggestions. I've heard good things about True > Image; not as many good things about Ghost since Norton took it over. > > Big_Al, will I be able to effectively back up my hard hard drive, given > the 4GB FAT32 limit? I can format the external hard drive as NTFS -- will > only lose one old backup of my other PC in the process. Or should I just > forge ahead? > > Joe > > "JS" <@> wrote in message news:Oc9ExH9JJHA.5904@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... >> If you are just using the external drive for file backups then as >> Big_Al mentioned there is a file size limitation with FAT32. >> >> However if you are looking for a comprehensive backup >> solution that protects you even if you should have a >> hard disk failure then consider creating an Image Backup >> of your laptop's drive to the external hard drive. >> >> Norton Ghost - has a 30 day trial available >> (Trial does not allow you to create a Bootable Restore CD AFAK) >> http://www.symantec.com/norton/products/overview.jsp?pcid=br&pvid=ghost14 >> Product Review "Symantec's 14th Ghost": >> http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Norton-Ghost--Review-78775.shtml >> >> True Image - has a 15 day trial version available, >> (Trial version can create a Restore CD, but I have not verified this yet) >> http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/ >> >> JS >> http://www.pagestart.com >> >> >> "Joe Starin" <joespamfreestarin@ameritech.net> wrote in message >> news:sTqGk.2812$YU2.1004@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com... >>> Fast question: Have a Dell 8600 laptop with an NTFS file system. Want to >>> back up the laptop to a Western Digital external hard drive that I >>> believe is formated FAT32. Can I do this? I've heard that if you want to >>> back up data from one hard drive to another, the formatting of both >>> drives must be the same. Is this true? Thanks. Joe >>> >> >> > >
Guest Twayne Posted October 7, 2008 Posted October 7, 2008 Re: FAT32 or NTFS for backup? > Fast question: Have a Dell 8600 laptop with an NTFS file system. Want > to back up the laptop to a Western Digital external hard drive that I > believe is formated FAT32. Can I do this? I've heard that if you want > to back up data from one hard drive to another, the formatting of > both drives must be the same. Is this true? Thanks. Joe There really is no reason to stay with FAT-32 when you have NTFS capability; it's also easy to switch a FAT drive to NTFS. The drive came formatted FAT-32 for compatability with the most operatins systems. If they used NTFS then only XP and like OS's could use it out of the box. NTFS does not have the 4 Gig/file limitation and does have several other advantages not available with FAT. If you'd like to know more, look for NTFS at wikipedia (best layman's descriptions & includes FAT) or do some Google searches. YOu're almost certain to pass the 4 Gig file size with backups so that alone is enough to go NTFS. The main advantages of imaging progralm like Norton's Ghost or Acronis TI are they can compress data, and will use the Shadow Copy service, allowing operating system backups, easy scheduling, backup types, etc.. ntbackup in XP is just as funtional and reliable but not as quick to pick up on, and can be scheduled with Task Scheduler if money is tight. Problem there is, it'll only save to a disk drive and no compression. So you have to create the backup and then copy it to external storage or wherever; won't write to CD, etc, without jumping thru some hoops. For those little "critical" files I might edit several times a day, I use XXCopy.exe from XXCopy.com. It's sort of a super Xcopy with lots more switches & features. It's fast & reliable too & perfect for non-operating sysem backups where the folders & file names don't change a lot. Not quite as quick to start up, but fully functional and like XXCopy.exe is the latest version of WinZip. It has the ability to create "jobs" for backups. IMO XXCopy is better but you have the learning curve to go thru you won't have with WinZip. HTH Twayne
Guest Joe Starin Posted October 7, 2008 Posted October 7, 2008 Re: FAT32 or NTFS for backup? Thanks for all the great discussion and info. I'm going to purchase one of the discussed backup programs and use it to back up my two NTFS laptops, one older "not sure" laptop, and one FAT32 desktop (which has already been backed up to the FAT 32 Western Digital external drive.) I'd rather not do any reformatting, especially if the backup program will make any necessary "adjustments" for me. Joe "Twayne" <nobody@devnull.spamcop.net> wrote in message news:%23X7c$TIKJHA.4772@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >> Fast question: Have a Dell 8600 laptop with an NTFS file system. Want >> to back up the laptop to a Western Digital external hard drive that I >> believe is formated FAT32. Can I do this? I've heard that if you want >> to back up data from one hard drive to another, the formatting of >> both drives must be the same. Is this true? Thanks. Joe > > There really is no reason to stay with FAT-32 when you have NTFS > capability; it's also easy to switch a FAT drive to NTFS. > The drive came formatted FAT-32 for compatability with the most operatins > systems. If they used NTFS then only XP and like OS's could use it out of > the box. > NTFS does not have the 4 Gig/file limitation and does have several > other advantages not available with FAT. If you'd like to know more, look > for NTFS at wikipedia (best layman's descriptions & includes FAT) or do > some Google searches. YOu're almost certain to pass the 4 Gig file size > with backups so that alone is enough to go NTFS. > The main advantages of imaging progralm like Norton's Ghost or Acronis > TI are they can compress data, and will use the Shadow Copy service, > allowing operating system backups, easy scheduling, backup types, etc.. > ntbackup in XP is just as funtional and reliable but not as quick to pick > up on, and can be scheduled with Task Scheduler if money is tight. Problem > there is, it'll only save to a disk drive and no compression. So you have > to create the backup and then copy it to external storage or wherever; > won't write to CD, etc, without jumping thru some hoops. > > For those little "critical" files I might edit several times a day, I use > XXCopy.exe from XXCopy.com. It's sort of a super Xcopy with lots more > switches & features. It's fast & reliable too & perfect for non-operating > sysem backups where the folders & file names don't change a lot. > Not quite as quick to start up, but fully functional and like XXCopy.exe > is the latest version of WinZip. It has the ability to create "jobs" for > backups. IMO XXCopy is better but you have the learning curve to go thru > you won't have with WinZip. > > HTH > > Twayne >
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