Questions Concerning 2TB USB Drive

[C1]

Purchased an Hitachi USB 2TB SimpleDrive as it was on sale for only $139. It seems to run OK & I do need it for archive. Bunch of questions though:

1. A hidden file that cant be deleted called "System Volume Information" has showed up. Is this really needed? If not how can it be deleted with out formatting the drive?

2. The Recycle Bin folder shows as "Recycler" & contains an undeletable folder "S-1-5-21-1292428093-............... " What's going on?

3. - Chkdsk shows 4KB/allocation unit. Why so small? I specified 32KB for the 300GB Maxtors to assist large file transfer. Generally small clusters with a huge drive like this will need a gigantic allocation table.

4. Would WINXP OS actually be able to reformat this large drive to full capacity? (It looks like it would work.)

5. It comes with software on the HDD. On application is the Fabrik backup, but the other is a Turbo USB supposedly to increase the transfer speed. It does seem to need the Turbo USB. Does anyone have experience with this application from Hitachi (probably also something that Buffalo uses if I had to guess)? Im just concerned that this application, if it doesnt work well might mess with my USB drivers & would be an issue to repair.


Thanks in advance

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[Emulex]

yeah welcome to windows. manually format the drive and make sure to disable system restore.

recycle bin's are kind of necessary -- otherwise if you had only one on C: and you deleted a file in explorer you would have to copy that file over usb and potentially fill the other drive - not how windows undelete was intended to work -

xp can handle it all day long.

5. ditch that software fabrik is junk. i'm suprised fabrik is still around i thought simpletech bought them out.

 

[C1]

Did a lot of testing last night & was able to answer some of my own questions.

- The HDD can be cleared by deleting the partition & quick reformatting in Disk Management. However, the hidden System Volume Information folder & undeletable SID line item in the Recycler folder will reappear on boot up (note: System Restore is always disabled as I never use it nor have need to). The SID is the user ID assigned by the OS to keep track of specific users/accounts & the SID in the Recycler specifies specifically who owns the Recycle Bin for the deleted materials. I prefer to show hidden files (to see the Recycle Bin for the particular drive plus to see the pesky Thumbs index file to avoid/omit it when I "select all" to display jpegs) so that's why this issue has even come up.

- A note to Hitachi Simple Drive users - the drive so far works really well & I recommend it. It uses the DeskStar 7K/2000 the specification which is intended for the casual desktop/home user. It is not intended for continuous 24/7 access (ie, large duty cycle). For that use the enterprise UltraStar version (ie, HU series versus HSD series) which is enterprise & made for continuous use (eg, in servers).

- Concerning the Turbo USB. Yes, it is needed. Tests on transferring a video to external HDD with & w/o Turbo indicate a substantial difference (eg, 4min 36 sec versus 8min 15 sec). With turbo the transfer is 17% faster than the same file transfer to an external Iomega 160 2.5" USB HDD. So performance increases are seen to range from 17% to 47% (25% is advertised). Also, the Turbo USB is an installed program & shows up as such in add/remove software so it is readily removable. Oh yes, there was a complaint about Turbo USB not being enabled unless one reboots the computer with the drive online. To fix it so that it operates like most people want/expect, disable its startup in MSCONFIG. Now once booted, any time the big drive is turned on & registered, just click the Turbo USB desktop icon & you will have the Turbo Driver activated. Also, turning off or disconnecting the big drive & then turning it back on or reconnecting it in the same session will automatically re-establish the Turbo USB drive in the Turbo mode. There is no more need to reboot anything/anymore.