Topic: External hard drive partition size?

[fsulloway]

I just picked up an external hard drive to store 24/48 audio files. I won't be using it for anything else if that matters. what should I set the partition size to? the minimum,maximum or somewhere in between?Thanks.

[Steve J]

I set one partition set for the maximum size. Since the drives I use for archiving don't have any operating system and are only storing certain file types (i.e., SHN, FLAC or txt files), I don't see the need for partitioning beyond the single max partition in NTFS (I have XP on all my systems).

[fsulloway]

Thanks for the info. Now another question if I may. I can move files from the home computer to and from the external HD.I can move files to the laptop from the external HD.However when I try to move files from the laptop to the external HD a message says "device not ready."

[Steve J]

Which operating system are you using?

[fsulloway]

The home computer usues xp home and the laptop uses xp pro.

[Steve J]

Were you "hotswapping" the drive? Have you tried rebooting the lappy with the drive plugged in? I have encountered a "device not ready" message using an external (firewire) CD burner; and rebooting in this manner to care of it. Shouldn't normally be a probably; but my lappy (Dell Inspiron) seems to be real finicky about hotswapping peripherals.

[Craig T]

did you initialize and format the new HD?

[Nick in Edinboro]

Thanks for the info. Now another question if I may. I can move files from the home computer to and from the external HD.I can move files to the laptop from the external HD.However when I try to move files from the laptop to the external HD a message says "device not ready."

On the laptop it does show up in your "My Computer"?

One easy way to see what is going on with the hard drive:
 - right click on My Computer
 - click "Manage"
 - Look for "Storage"
 - Under "Storage" click "Disk Management"

Here you will see all your drives, Windoze will detect if they are healthy, active, their filesystem, etc.  I know with my home PC, sometimes in order to recognize those hot swap drives I will have to come into this Disk Management screen, right click on the drive I'm trying to access and click "Mark Partition as Active"--> then *poof* it works just fine.

If you report what it says under this management screen it'd help us determine what the lappy's beef is.

CraigT, I listened to a Rays Music Exchange show you taped this weekend on a car trip, sounded great

[fsulloway]

Here's what I've got on the lappy. external drive>partition>basic>ntfs>healthy>active>147 gigs free
I was able to send a small picture file to and from the lappy but when trying to move a 1.5 gig file I still get "error copying file or folder", "device is not ready." Thanks everyone for the help and patience cuzz mine's about gone.

[Nick in Edinboro]

Super odd fsulloway....

How far along does it get in the transfer before showing that error message?

If it can transfer a small file but chokes on a larger file seems to indicate the transport (USB) is at fault not the drive.

Are you using USB or USB2?

What I would do in this situation first is update the firmware/drivers for whatever is feeding your USB (either a card or the motherboard).

I've run into similar errors using my JB3 on USB, as I would try and transfer large files it would crap out in the middle or towards the end of a transfer and I attributed it to the connection "timing out" --- I switched to the much faster Firewire transfer and didn't have an issue any longer.

[fsulloway]

I'm using a firewire connection as the laptop has no usb2.0. It usually takes 15-30 secs before the error message comes up.

[Nick in Edinboro]

Are you using a built in firewire port or a PCMIA card? 

Give me the model and we can see if there isn't new drivers out there for ti...

[fsulloway]

Firewire is built in(sony iLink).the HD is a WD16000BB.Thanks soooooo much.

[Nick in Edinboro]

Ah I mean of the laptop, sorry.

Best bet, head over to sony's support site and download the latest firmware/drivers for your firewire "i.Link" port.
http://ciscdb.sel.sony.com/cgi-bin/select-software.pl

I searched one random Sony VAIO and found this:
"Sony i.LINK (IEEE 1394) PCI Host Controller Driver Installation Utility"

Doesn't seem much like an upgraded driver but it might be more up to date then what your laptop shipped with.  I'd recommend finding all the nifty updates/patches for your hardware while your there

[mmmatt]

Try this windows patch.  I have been researching the firewire option for my mixer and this was listed there because people were having problems... not sure if it will help, but it can't hurt!  I have been hearing this same problem recently though.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5c076e4c-aec8-434d-9849-e668a50e6e81&DisplayLang=en

Matt