HD problem!:S

[Tronic]

Correct me if i'm wrong..

But maybe that program is set to copy the partitions and then format after that...

[nihil]

I think that tronic might have hit on something earlier?

Some formats have a max size..for instance, FAT's max size might be 2 or 3 gigs..I don't remember, can anyone clarify this?

You say "FAT" but which FAT? if it is FAT16, I could well understand you being forced to format? I believe that FAT16 will support 2GB in theory, although many BIOSES of the day did not (there was a barrier at 1.97GB). This is for DOS, Win 3x and early Win95. NT would support 4Gb, but only if you used 64KB clusters, which would cause problems with the other OSes. Later versions of Win95, along with 98 & Me used FAT32, which does not have this problem.

I am not too sure what th3 X-cution3r tried to do, but if he tried to copy an NTFS partition from his main drive onto a drive that is FAT16 or FAT32, I would expect it to reformat.....it would have no choice? It would be the same logic if you tried to do it the other way round?

Now let's be realistic here Is a 3Gb drive worth all this effort? It is old, it is slow, it is worn, it is likely to fail? I picked up an 8.4 Gb drive a few months back for USD 9............turned out it was actually a 12Gb drive (BIOS barrier at 8 Gb, it did not support Int13h extensions) and I know that it had not been used very much so it was worth having..............a 3Gb drive is a different proposition?

My personal advice would be:

1. Put it out to pasture
2. Convert it to NTFS, but DON'T trust it with anything important

Good luck