Page 1 of Can I use Norton Partition Magic 8 to partition a drive without losing existing data?

I need to create a partition on an external hard drive. Can I do this without losing the files I already have on the drive?

Best Wishes
Dan

Dan

Partition Magic should do what you want without losing any existing data - never had any problems myself doing this. Always best to back up if you can though.

Sam.

Hi - my external hard drive is labelled bad in partition magic and it won`t allow me to partition the drive - any ideas? Also I need to create FAT2 on the new partition - don`t even know what that is - just need it so it will work on the usb on my philips dvd 5960 player.

Thanks in advance

Best Wishes

It is probably currently formatted using NTFS, which most other systems (other than Windows based PCs) don`t like.
The most accessible filesystem is "FAT32" - hence your need to convert to it for the dvd player.

Partition magic is indeed the best tool for the job...so fixing the "bad partition" might be the best way forward. I think I had a similar issue recently - but since I had loads of other space I just transferred the stuff off the drive and re-formatted.
So not much help there. sorry.

Hi - I transferred everything off the drive. Now how to I format it in FAT?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Best Wishes
Dan

Wanted to do something similar a week ago myself. Ended up buying PCAnswers magazine (Nov 2007 issue) which had a non trial version of Paragon Drive Backup 8.5 SE on the cover disc. You can partition, change formats (FAT32/NTFS), assign drive letters, name drives & specify size of each all for £5.99. Hell I think u can even use it to backup ur data. ;) Had 3 partitions on my external drive (one FAT32 & 2 NTFS) in around 30 mins. Just make sure you are messing with the correct drive before confirming your actions. They certainly had copies left in my local newsagent on Monday. Good luck!!!

SpOOky

Deano - if your drive is connected as letter X for example, then you should do the following.

Start, Run, then type "cmd" and press the OK button.
This will bring up a command prompt.
In this command prompt...type (the bits in square brackets are buttons to press :D)
format X: /FS:FAT32 [enter]

That will give you a full format with the FAT32 filesystem on it.
Not sure if the `quick` format will also work, but you could try it:
format X: /Q /FS:FAT32 [enter]

HTH
Miles

Its a 320gb drive - I read somewhere that you can only format 32gb in Fat32 - is that true?

Thanks

Dan