i just got a new machine because my other ones (2) both crashed. I backed up most of my data on an external 75g disk in NTFS formmat connected with USB. Vista sees it as an unformatted disk. I will not reformat it as my data is there. My question is why does Vista see it as unformatted? Mike
Because something may have corrupted that external drive. Did you do a "safe" shutoff of that drive, after you backed up data on it?
I hooked the drive back up to an XP machine and found that it was unformatted there too...I must have shut ot down wrong.....Thanks!
Whenever you have the external drive, connected to your computer, and you switch it on, you will hear an audio sound, and there will be a "safely remove" icon in your tray. If you send data to that external, then, prior to shutting it off, double clicking on the icon in the tray, and clicking on the safely remove....., then turning off the external, you will rarely have a problem. If you just shut off the external, without going through that process, you are playing Russian Roulette with the data that is on that drive, and eventually, the drive will lose.
I always wondered where that pesky "safely remove hardware" icon in the tray came from...I never had any idea.....now I have no doubt that the bullet was in rhe chamber......Thanks!
