[Angelfish]

I am using a Lenovo laptop running Vista. I often get a reminder that I am running out of space. I have a WD extenal hard drive ( 1TB ). I previously used it on my 6141 Bell receiver. When I hook it up via USB, the computer dings and recognizes an external device. The problem is that I don't see an icon that I can click on to move data over to this drive. Can this be done over a USB connection. I've checked Vista compatibilty and the WD Hard Drive is listed as being compatible. Do I need to do anything differently?

 

[hugh]

You need to format the drive for use with your PC since it was reformatted by Bell.

I forget with Vista but I think its the same as Windows 7.

With the drive plugged in and turned on, go into Control Panel to administrative options and look for Create and format partitions. Look for the external drive and format it.

 

[Angelfish]

Thanks Hugh (for the info) I will try that tonight.

 

[TKG26]

I'll ask my question here as i think its related:

I have an external drive i built my self. Formated using vista and used on my HD receiver ala PVRMAX. When it was first installed to the receiver it formatted the drive. And it works wonderfully. Today i wanted to use it to back up my ps3. No go. So i tried my XP netbook and Vista machine(the one that had formatted originally) Neither see the drive, i get the Safly remove hardware icon in the task bar and the sound you get when u plug it in, but under my computer nothing.

so i tried Disk Management and i see it there, but my only options are delete partition and help, i do not get the option to assign a drive letter. So at this point i cannot access the drive to view its contents or format(unless deleting the partition withing disk management will lead me down that path.) Right now i put it back into the HD receiver and its functioning as it did..

Im guessing i have no options to use this as an on the fly usb drive now that its hooked up as a pvr right? And my only real option for using it on my pc's and PS3 are to reformat it? If this is the case and i cannot see the drive is the first step to delete all partitions using disk management?

thanks

i googled for quite a bit and nothing helped me "SEE" the drive under my computer. Played with device manager deleting usb mass storage and the disk drive,rebooting with not luck..

 

[BGY11]

Deleting the partition is what you want to do - then you'll create a new one. The reason you can't assign a drive letter is because Windows doesn't recognize the file system that the PVR uses.

 

[TKG26]

thats what i was affraid off. i guess i need to decide if i want to flush that drive. if i make two partitions should i be able to get PVR and PC usage out of it?

Thanks again

 

[BGY11]

Doubtful, since the PVR wouldn't be able to partition the drive.