elektriksheep wrote:Groovy. Now all I have to do is find somewhere to put 250gig of data while I reformat
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Cheers for the info though, much appreciated.
This message is old so you've likely solved your problem already, but in case it might be helpful to someone in a similar situation... It involves a fair bit of juggling of files but what you could try in this case is to partition your external drive. Using either Windows Disk Management (XP, Vista, Win7) or some 3rd party partitioning tool, first shrink the existing partition to give yourself 250GB of unused space on the external drive. Done this way the files should remain intact within the remaining NTFS partition. Then create a new 250GB partition in the new unused space and finally format only that partition as FAT32. After you've done this you can copy your files from the original NTFS partition onto the new FAT32 partition. When you're satisfied that your files are safely transferred you can reformat the NTFS partition as FAT32 if you want. If you need to have just one single large partition on the drive there are some 3rd party partitioning utilities that can allow you to extend an existing partition into unallocated drive space while still retaining the file contents of the formatted partition. Windows Disk Management will do this too but only in one direction, adding available empty space at the end of the partition but not to the beginning (IIRC). Your existing files would have to be moved into the first partition on the drive, then you can delete the second partition and Extend the FAT32 partition into the empty space. Other software like Easus Partition Manager (freeware) etc. are more sophisticated and can also do all sorts of partition work without deleting your data. (don't even think about using DOS or FDISK!! for this sort of partitioning)
Naturally moving your valuable data to an entirely separate harddrive is the best way to protect it while you reformat your external drive but if that option isn't available and you don't mind the risks (ie. power outs during any part of the procedures, or other potential glitches) repartitioning while running Windows is possible as long as you have enough empty space on the drive to move your files around in.
RalfG wrote:
elektriksheep wrote:Groovy. Now all I have to do is find somewhere to put 250gig of data while I reformat
Cheers for the info though, much appreciated.
This message is old so you've likely solved your problem already, but in case it might be helpful to someone in a similar situation... It involves a fair bit of juggling of files but what you could try in this case is to partition your external drive. Using either Windows Disk Management (XP, Vista, Win7) or some 3rd party partitioning tool, first shrink the existing partition to give yourself 250GB of unused space on the external drive. Done this way the files should remain intact within the remaining NTFS partition. Then create a new 250GB partition in the new unused space and finally format only that partition as FAT32. After you've done this you can copy your files from the original NTFS partition onto the new FAT32 partition. When you're satisfied that your files are safely transferred you can reformat the NTFS partition as FAT32 if you want. If you need to have just one single large partition on the drive there are some 3rd party partitioning utilities that can allow you to extend an existing partition into unallocated drive space while still retaining the file contents of the formatted partition. Windows Disk Management will do this too but only in one direction, adding available empty space at the end of the partition but not to the beginning (IIRC). Your existing files would have to be moved into the first partition on the drive, then you can delete the second partition and Extend the FAT32 partition into the empty space. Other software like Easus Partition Manager (freeware) etc. are more sophisticated and can also do all sorts of partition work without deleting your data. (don't even think about using DOS or FDISK!! for this sort of partitioning)
Naturally moving your valuable data to an entirely separate harddrive is the best way to protect it while you reformat your external drive but if that option isn't available and you don't mind the risks (ie. power outs during any part of the procedures, or other potential glitches) repartitioning while running Windows is possible as long as you have enough empty space on the drive to move your files around in.
Hi. Thanks for taking the time to reply at all, and for taking the time to write such a clear and detailed reply. Unfortunately, I didn't actually solve the problem, I actually gave up entirely as I don't have a MAC, so HFS+ is not convenient, and the 4GB max file size of FAT32 is also an issue. So I don't use an external HDD with my Xbox at all, and I use my Seagate Freeagent drive solely as extra storage for my laptop. It really is a shame NTFS is not compatible with the Xbox.
On another note, setting up file sharing so that your Xbox can access folders on your PC is also unnecessarily difficult - all this messing around with Media Player is such a ball ache. One day someone will design something simple, intuitive, and easy to use 
So I'm a PC user and I have been having the same problems with my 250G Seagate External hard drive, but all this computer Jargon is really confusing to me as I'm not super tech savvy. If someone is willing to give me step by step procedure of reformatting my hd so that it works with my xbox 360 that would be great.
Thanks and sorry for any inconvenience 
