Couple of ways depending on what you are trying to do. First you can go into 'My Computer' right click on the external drive and format it fat32. Make sure you have selected the right drive cause the format will clear that drive blank again. Now if you wish to make an exact copy or clone of your main drive, you can make what is called an 'image' of your drive. The external drive must be atleast the size of the drive you wish to copy or larger..a 200g drive cannot be imaged (normally) onto say an 80g drive you need atleast a 200g drive to image to. Macrium reflect is free imaging software which I use and it works great.there are others. What is the difference between a backup and an image? Well the backup (depending on how it is done) usually saves the data..meaning if the hard drive failed you would get a new hard drive.reinstall xp and then use the backup to restore your data. With an image you would copy the image onto the new hard drive and the computer should boot up exactly as it was when you took the image.operating system, files everything. So it depends on what you wish to accomplish. If I am not being clear enough reply back with any questions. |