Thanks to all who've commented about my USB2 drive query. Robert, I'm not familiar with TPP Autoloader, can you expand on that?
I've never tried a speed test, but just did - the results were unexpected.
I used a 41mb folder for the trial. The first transfer was from the host XP Pro NTFS drive, a 20gb WD 7200rpm, to the USB 2.0 box holding a 40gb 7200 Maxtor formatted in FAT32.
Test1 - host to satellite - 25 seconds
Test2 - satellite to host - 4 seconds
I have no idea why the disparity - anyone have a clue? I did the test twice with virtually identical results.
Ian Porter
Computer Guys Inc.
Arrowtown
New Zealand
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 5:24 AM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Re-format USB drive
> "So I wondered if perhaps the system isn't 100% comfortable with a
satellite FAT32 drive."
Hi Ian,
I can't help with the reformatting details, but have a similar setup and my
NTFS system is very comfortable with the Fat32 USB drive. I have an Intel
845 MB, 40G NTFS C:, with XP Pro. The USB drive is 15G Fat32 (F:).
I leave the power and USB cables connected to the USB drive all the time,
power switch off, and it is dormant. When I want to use the USB drive, I
turn on it's power switch. The computer recognizes it very quickly (because
TPP Autoloader, tppaldr.exe has been run at bootup).
To shutdown the drive, I click an icon in the tray and ask if it is OK to
remove the USB drive. It usually says OK, but sometimes says to try again
later and an immediate retry says OK. I then turn off the power switch and
it is dormant again. I used to unplug the USB cable from the computer, but
have found that to be unnecessary. If I inadvertently shutdown the computer
without powering down the USB drive, it works fine at the next computer
startup, but the drive/fan are unnecessarily left running. I never power it
down until the software tells me it's OK. My instincts tell me that if two
of these units work differently, the difference would most likely be the
controlling software. The hardware looks very basic. Does that make sense
to you?
I have used the drive on two other Fat32 computers with the same results,
but don't share it because I find the movable drive eliminates my need for
a network. All in all, the system and I are very happy with the Fat32
drive. The convenience of having a drive which will move to any (USB)
computer is opening new doors for me. HTH a little bit, Bob
>I asked this question a couple of weeks back and didn't get any relevant
>answers. Before I leap in and just do it, I'll pose it again, in case
>anyone has fresh info.
>I'm using XP Pro and the host drive has been formatted with NTFS.
>I have a satellite drive mounted in a USB 2.0 enclosure which I use for
>storage. This drive is formatted in FAT32.
>My question is:
>What is likely to occur if I attempt to re-format the FAT32 drive to NTFS
>while it's still in the USB box? I should say that I don't forsee any
>need for future compatibility with other FAT32 systems, so that's not a
>factor.
>I guess I could always take it out of the enclosure and format it that
>way, but it's being seen OK by the XP disk management facility where it
>is, so I don't know that I'd be gaining anything.
>And I appreciate that there's a possible risk of data corruption but I
>don't know how likely that is.
>The reason I'm considering the re-format is that the drive behaves a
>little bit oddly at times. One example is the way that the system scans
>the disk when I turn it on AFTER the main system has booted. And by
>'scan' I don't mean scan as in Scandisk, I mean scan as in 'quickly run
>through the disk's contents'.
>And the way that I can tell the system to 'share' the drive, but this
>setting is always forgotten after a reboot.
>So I wondered if perhaps the system isn't 100% comfortable with a
>satellite FAT32 drive. TX Ian
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