Back Up Hard Drive

[DJSFX 0]

Hi All,

I have just bought a back up hard drive and copied over all my music from one to the other, The drives are

identice 320gig iomega portable drives, both had 298gig to start with but now with music copied to both the old drive has 186gig left while the new one has 202

all the music seems to be there but I just find it strange that there identicle but diferent sizes

 

can anyone clear this up?

Thanks

 

[DJ Shuggy 0]

Hi All,

I have just bought a back up hard drive and copied over all my music from one to the other, The drives are

identice 320gig iomega portable drives, both had 298gig to start with but now with music copied to both the old drive has 186gig left while the new one has 202

all the music seems to be there but I just find it strange that there identicle but diferent sizes

 

can anyone clear this up?

Thanks

 

you may find that one drive is formatted NTFS and the other is FAT32....

 

That would explain the differing storage usage..

[vokf 0]

Possibly the cluster size? (or Allocation unit size)

 

This is effectively the smallest block size allocated for each file. On my Vista Laptop, its showing as 4096 (4Kb), so a 5Kb file will require 2 blocks (2 x 4Kb =total 8Kb used).

 

You can change this on format, its worth checking they are the same.

You may get a performance hit by setting the size low (1024/512), but also a slight increase in usable capacity.

Basically, I'd leave at 4096 (windows default).

 

 

Other things, Recycled bin. Ensure you are viewing hidden items. This is disabled by default.

 

This isn't something I worry about - my back-up HDD's are various sizes.

 

Jason

 

[DJSFX 0]

Possibly the cluster size? (or Allocation unit size)

 

This is effectively the smallest block size allocated for each file. On my Vista Laptop, its showing as 4096 (4Kb), so a 5Kb file will require 2 blocks (2 x 4Kb =total 8Kb used).

 

You can change this on format, its worth checking they are the same.

You may get a performance hit by setting the size low (1024/512), but also a slight increase in usable capacity.

Basically, I'd leave at 4096 (windows default).

Other things, Recycled bin. Ensure you are viewing hidden items. This is disabled by default.

 

This isn't something I worry about - my back-up HDD's are various sizes.

 

Jason

 

ok thanks I will check those things later, I used the back up drive last night and all seems well and if its not something to worry about I might just leave it as it is

thanks again

J

[DJSFX 0]

ok thanks I will check those things later, I used the back up drive last night and all seems well and if its not something to worry about I might just leave it as it is

thanks again

J

 

I used the back up drive at 3 gigs at the weekend so im convinced all is now ok, how do I view hidden items?

thanks

[Dream Catchers 0]

To view hidden files on XP :-

 

From the menu bar, Tools>Folder Options>View, then click the "Show Hidden Files and Folders" radio button.

 

Jim