advise on pationiong an external hard drive

[macafee2]

I know nothing about computers. if I need to turn the pc on, you will need to tell me.. that's about my level

I need advice on how to partition an external hard drive.
this link is some instructions, are they right for an external hard drive?

http://www.wikihow.com/Partition-You...e-in-Windows-7


I will ask more questions so if you can help, please monitor this thread

thanks

macafee2

[mbonwick]

Yes, that will work on an external drive.

Just make sure you choose the right drive in Disk Management; you don't want to format your system drive!

[macafee2]

Originally Posted by mbonwick

Yes, that will work on an external drive.

Just make sure you choose the right drive in Disk Management; you don't want to format your system drive!

lol, thanks.

could you explain what shrink volume is? when I check the properties of the new hardrive it shows as full with no spare space.

macafee2

[mbonwick]

Shrink is to reduce the size of the current partition on the drive, in order to have space to create another (new) partition.

I should have asked before - what are you actually trying to do? Create a 2nd partition, format an existing partition or partition a blank drive?

[macafee2]

Originally Posted by mbonwick

Shrink is to reduce the size of the current partition on the drive, in order to have space to create another (new) partition.

I should have asked before - what are you actually trying to do? Create a 2nd partition, format an existing partition or partition a blank drive?

I dont know in truth.
the instructions for my cctv say i an add a 3tb esata hard drive. so i got one, plugged it in but my cctv cant see it. My pc can see it via a usb lead.
swann the cctv people are useless. They have told me the hard drive is not compatible but cant or wont tell me which drives are compatible. one bloke has said i need to partition the hard drive and format it.
Via the usb lead my pc says the hard drive is full and there is no space, this seems very odd.

i have no idea what to do.
swann have said they will book me a call with someoen else from tech support but they are in austrilia and so its between 7 and 8am monday.
i'm not expecting much help from them

macafee2

[MSS]

If your manual says that your Swann systm can use a 3tb device, you should not need to partition a 3tb device. I suspect all you need to do is "format" the device to the HD format used by your system.

Firstly, check whether the external HD is available in the Swann "HD Format" menu. If it is, select the correct device and format there as opposed to on your PC.

If the HD is not available in the Swann formatting menu, check in the manual the HD format that the Swann system uses and come back with the information.

The following may be of help depending of your system model.

http://support.swann.com/customer/po...ding-capacity-

[macafee2]

mss, just reading your reply, thank you.
The hard drive is not being seen by the swann system.
Swann have said it needs to be formatted in F1832 format .
i'll check the link you have given me, thanks

macafee2

[macafee2]

have looked at the link and yes I think some useful info. My system information starts nvr6308 and although the link does not refer to this I do think I can use the hard drive for recording.

This I am worried about

The eSATA HDD is to be used for live recording (i.e. the detail number of your DVR begins with 57), it is imperative to format the eSATA HDD in the DVR itself.
If it has already been formatted in a Windows computer, you will usually need to clear the partition prior to being able to format it in the DVR.



my hard drive seems to be full with files referring to the hard drive and I have no idea about any partitions on it, don't know how to check


macafee2

[MSS]

On your PC, use windows explorer to see what are the files on the new hard disk.

Are you sure it is not showing as (nearly) emplty as opposed to full?

[MSS]

Your Lacie drive should have a number of files on it when new. One of these is the manual. Another is an application called the Lacie Setup Assistant (or something like this).

Use Windows Explorer and confrim that under "Computer" it shows the Lacie drive.

Make a new folder on your PC's hard drive called Lacie Software within the Documents folder.

Copy all the Lacie applications on the new disk into this new folder.

Double click on the Lacie Setup Assitance and when it runs, use it to format the Lacie drive to "NTFS". Do not bother creating or changing partitions. You should only need a single partition.

DO NOT FORMAT YOUR PC's DRIVE BY ACCIDENT, or you will lose everything on the PC.

Once the Lacie drive is formatted in this manner, try it in the Swann. If it is detected, reformat it there for the Swann to use.

ps. ignore my references to Swann. Your system is not Swann. It is just that mine is and I assumed. The rest applies.