I am running factory installed XP Home on my 20 month old eMachines D2880. I 
partitioned the original hard drive into 3 partitions, C for operating 
system, D for programs, E for data, although there is likely some spillover 
between the three. These use NTFS file system per original factory settings.

I purchased a Western Digital USB 2.0 250 GB drive for the primary purpose 
of backing up my partitioned drives. However, it is preformatted with FAT32 
file system. What to do?

Let me make it clear, I have no clue what NTFS and FAT32 mean. And I am open 
to remaining ignorant if there is no compelling reason for me to know. So . 
. . . . . .

Is there a problem having the two different file systems or should I change 
one, presumably the USB drive?

If I need to change the USB drive to NTFS, I am assuming it will be pretty 
easy to follow XP help to change it, but any guidance would be appreciated.

Also, I was thinking that I would partition the USB drive with partitions 
slightly smaller than my C, D and E drives and backing them up individually. 
Any issues with that?

If it matters, I am likely to be installing an internal drive soon with 
Ghost to provide automatic backups and the external drive will be to have a 
seperate backup that is not in the computer assuming it blows up.  Also, I 
am not a power user. I use my computer a lot, but it is for web surfing, 
email, and office functions, but not heavy graphics or gaming.

Thank you for your help.

William Closure

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