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Formating external hard drive to work with both Window 98 and XP


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Posted

I have a 20 GB Western Digital hard drive that was formerly used as an

external drive (slave drive) in a PC with Windows 98. I just attempted to

use it as an external drive for my notebook with XP. Upon recognizing it as

a new drive, XP said that it needed to be reformatted. I clicked "Yes" and

it formatted and now works fine with XP. But now my Windows 98 PC will not

even recognize it as a drive.

 

Question: Is there a way to format this external hard drive (using XP, since

it is no longer recognized by Windows 98), so that it will work with both XP

and Windows 98? (I want to use it to transfer large amounts of data between

the two.)

 

Thanks for any ideas.

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Guest John John
Posted

Re: Formating external hard drive to work with both Window 98 andXP

 

Re: Formating external hard drive to work with both Window 98 andXP

 

You probably formated it NTFS. Format it FAT32.

 

John

 

high wrote:

> I have a 20 GB Western Digital hard drive that was formerly used as an

> external drive (slave drive) in a PC with Windows 98. I just attempted to

> use it as an external drive for my notebook with XP. Upon recognizing it as

> a new drive, XP said that it needed to be reformatted. I clicked "Yes" and

> it formatted and now works fine with XP. But now my Windows 98 PC will not

> even recognize it as a drive.

>

> Question: Is there a way to format this external hard drive (using XP, since

> it is no longer recognized by Windows 98), so that it will work with both XP

> and Windows 98? (I want to use it to transfer large amounts of data between

> the two.)

>

> Thanks for any ideas.

>

>

Guest Don Phillipson
Posted

Re: Formating external hard drive to work with both Window 98 and XP

 

"high" <9r6bdg1v001@sneakemail.com> wrote in message

news:%232%23x2z4zHHA.4276@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> Question: Is there a way to format this external hard drive (using XP,

since

> it is no longer recognized by Windows 98), so that it will work with both

XP

> and Windows 98? (I want to use it to transfer large amounts of data

between

> the two.)

 

The drive must be reformatted FAT32 (not NFTS which is the

WinXP default.) WinXP can read and write to both formats.

Win98 does not "see" NTFS drives.

 

--

Don Phillipson

Carlsbad Springs

(Ottawa, Canada)

Posted

Re: Formating external hard drive to work with both Window 98 and XP

 

I reformatted it in FAT32, using that option in XP (since the hard drive is

not recognized by my Windows 98 pc). The FAT32 format works OK with XP, but

still isn't recognized as a drive in my Windows 98 pc.

 

 

"John John" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message

news:uP7mT54zHHA.3768@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> You probably formated it NTFS. Format it FAT32.

>

> John

>

> high wrote:

>

>> I have a 20 GB Western Digital hard drive that was formerly used as an

>> external drive (slave drive) in a PC with Windows 98. I just attempted to

>> use it as an external drive for my notebook with XP. Upon recognizing it

>> as a new drive, XP said that it needed to be reformatted. I clicked "Yes"

>> and it formatted and now works fine with XP. But now my Windows 98 PC

>> will not even recognize it as a drive.

>>

>> Question: Is there a way to format this external hard drive (using XP,

>> since it is no longer recognized by Windows 98), so that it will work

>> with both XP and Windows 98? (I want to use it to transfer large amounts

>> of data between the two.)

>>

>> Thanks for any ideas.

>

Guest Gary S. Terhune
Posted

Re: Formating external hard drive to work with both Window 98 and XP

 

In Windows XP, using Disk Management, delete all existing partitions. Then

re-attach the drive to the Win98 machine, and use FDISK to partition it.

Best to use one big extended partition and create one or more logical

volumes within that extended partition. Then format the partition(s). If you

need more detailed instructions, just ask.

 

--

Gary S. Terhune

MS-MVP Shell/User

http://www.grystmill.com

 

"high" <9r6bdg1v001@sneakemail.com> wrote in message

news:%23pRe0q5zHHA.1168@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>I reformatted it in FAT32, using that option in XP (since the hard drive is

>not recognized by my Windows 98 pc). The FAT32 format works OK with XP, but

>still isn't recognized as a drive in my Windows 98 pc.

>

>

> "John John" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message

> news:uP7mT54zHHA.3768@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

>> You probably formated it NTFS. Format it FAT32.

>>

>> John

>>

>> high wrote:

>>

>>> I have a 20 GB Western Digital hard drive that was formerly used as an

>>> external drive (slave drive) in a PC with Windows 98. I just attempted

>>> to use it as an external drive for my notebook with XP. Upon recognizing

>>> it as a new drive, XP said that it needed to be reformatted. I clicked

>>> "Yes" and it formatted and now works fine with XP. But now my Windows 98

>>> PC will not even recognize it as a drive.

>>>

>>> Question: Is there a way to format this external hard drive (using XP,

>>> since it is no longer recognized by Windows 98), so that it will work

>>> with both XP and Windows 98? (I want to use it to transfer large amounts

>>> of data between the two.)

>>>

>>> Thanks for any ideas.

>>

>

>


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