2TB WD passport USB drive and WinXP

[pclaptop23hour]

Opinions/Advice/Solution needed.

I ordered a 2TB WD "Passport" backup drive for a computer running WinXP.

I must have still been under anesthesia thinking,

1) XP would recognize such a large hard drive,

AND . . .

2) that this 2TB passport would NOT come GPT formatted which XP also does not recognize.

At this point upgrading the PC to Win7 or Win 10 is not an option.

I need to backup all current data on the XP's 500GB drive as well as an already full WD500GB "MY Book" external hard drive.

I'm thinking I have to remove the GPT type format (if XP is going to recognize it) and most likely that will mean 4 separate logical 500GB NTFS partitions or no?

Can I leave this passport intact at 2TB and reformat it to NTFS or at least separate logical 1TB partitioned NTFS drives?

Any input will be highly appreciated

Thanks Chris

 

[Shmee]

To back up important data to the external, simply boot a live linux disc such as parted magic or ubuntu. It will recognize both drives, and then you can transfer data as needed.

 

[pclaptop23hour]

thanks for reply shmee