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WDC My Pro Edition 250 gb External Hard Drive

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Dr J

Senior member
Greetings.

I'm considering the Western Digital, 250 gb, Pro, External Hard Drive, as a backup and media storage device:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=241&language=en

I have a few questions about it and hope someone can help with answers.

First, I understand the drive is formatted for Fat 32. Is it possible to convert it to NFTS and if so, how? From what I've read, as soon as it fires up, it self-configures. If this is the case, how, then, can I convert it to NFTS, if, by doing so, I erase the programming that's already on the drive?

Second, it performs best with 1394b, Firewire 800. Although my board is only capable of 1394a, Firewire 400, I still feel the 1394b makes it more practical over the long run, given that with firewire 800, the transfer rates are nearly double my Raptor's. And, while it comes with all three interfaces, including USB, 1394a is somewhat faster than USB and so I think this is the best option, in my case.

My concern is this: my intent is to also use the drive for backup. Should my Raptor, with my computer's operating system, fail, will the bios read this backup drive if I'm using 1394a? In fact, will it even read it via USB?

Any and all information appreciated and thanks in advance!

John
 
I use a similar device at work just for maintaining backup of data for short periods of time; I left the drive FAT32 and have never had a problem (I'm copying hundreds of thousands of files a a time.) I'm not trying to steer you away from NTFS, it is a more robust file system, just letting you know my experience. You could try contacting WD and see if they have a procedure or program that will do it w/o blowing away the software.

I'm not sure the Firewire800 would give you that big of a benefit; the bottleneck for data coming from the drives is drive controller capabilities. There might be a review or article of doing what you're attempting online that could give you some direction.

I'm pretty sure that you could not boot via 1394a or b; although you can through USB in most modern systems (less than 2 years old.)

alzan
 
The drive is FAT32 for compatibility with MacOS. While MacOS will read NTFS it has limited writing capabilities. If you want to format it with NTFS use Windows XP disk management.

Your bios may or may not support a bootable USB device, so boot into it and look under the boot options. I'd recommend a copy of Acronis for creating images and store the images on your external drive.
 
Thank you for your responses and advice.

Tom's tested the drive using all three forms of connectivity:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/05/storage-with-style/

1394b was best, followed by 1394a and the poorest was USB.

If my motherboard will boot from a USB drive and not from 1394a, then, can I use 1394 normally and then switch to USB, should my normal boot drive fail?

thanks,

John
 
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