Resolved Configure HD to use as portable storage

I have a Seagate 500 GB HD that came out of another computer. I have an enclosure and would like to configure it to use for large off line storage jobs. The HD is partitioned as HP (I) and Factory Image (J).

I started by deleting the contents of the J partition which was pretty small but it appeared the process would be lengthy on the I partition which is about 129 GB. I'm thinking now that it might be best to just format and start with a clean slate. If I do that, is there anything I need to do to use the HD as temporary storage? I don't need any of the data or programs from the HD.

 

Deleting and formatting should take about the same time - unless you choose "Quick" format which just updates the file tables to indicate all the space is available. I personally would choose a full format if formatting because some error checking is done in the process.

That said, I probably would repartition the drive too because you don't need the Factory Image partition any more and that is probably a very small partition. That said, it will not hurt to leave it as is but if me, I would either turn the drive into one big partition, or two ~250GB partitions.

Do note however, that the drive lettering (I and J) may change once attached to a different computer - depending on what other drives/partitions are already on the computer. Beyond those considerations, no, you should not need to do anything else to use this HD as long as the enclosure itself works fine.

If you are planning on attaching this drive to a PC (as opposed to a notebook) you have another option and that is to install this drive in the PC as a secondary (NOT the boot) drive. This is actually what I would do because enclosures rely on a USB connection and the USB interface can be more temperamental than a direct internal SATA connection.

 

Bill,
Thanks for the suggestions. I think I will follow your suggestion to install the HD in my machine - I had given that some thought but for some reason discounted it.

I am ready to do a full format and repartition. Should I do the partition task first or the format? Also, in Disk Management, I see an option to "shrink the volume ". Is that the same as partitioning? There is an option to format each partition individually but I don't see how to format the entire HD.

 

What Tony said!

 

Tony,
I am trying to install the HD in my main computer. There is a SATA power cable coming off the main harness but I don't see a SATA data cable. I do have an extra SATA data cable (the smaller of the two?). Next to where the main (C) hard drive plugs in is a space for another plug in. Is that where I would plug in the data cable?

Later Post - Tony and Bill,
I went ahead with what I thought was correct. Hooked up the SATA power and plugged in my SATA data cable next to the main hard drive plug and it worked. I can now get started on tinkering with the partitions, formatting, etc. Will let you know how it goes before I mark this one resolved.

Later Last Post - Tony and Bill,
Got 'er done - to my surprise. First time I have fooled around with a second hard drive in a computer. Guess the main caution is to make sure you don't accidentally delete any of the C volumes.
Bill - Thanks for the suggestion to install in the box rather than using as a portable. I think that will work much better because, as you pointed out, I have noticed some unpredictability with the connection when using the enclosure to check out other hard drives.
Tony - Thanks for the instructions - worked great.