Safe Speed Forums

Morning all.
I have recently bought myself a Lacie 750gb external hard drive but I'm struggling already!
I run Vista (I know) on a Acer laptop and when I plugged it in all was well in that I saw in the drive properties that the hard drive has 750gig ready to go.
So I attempted to clone my laptop hard drive to the external hard drive using Acronis True Image 2009 (a test run - so to speak) and obviously botched it, but no worries I thought as I can simply delete all the files on the external hard drive and try again without the aid of a large Rioja.
Anyway, I deleted most of the files including some that came with the hard drive (manual/software etc) which I think I can live without but I have two left on it that won't be deleted as apparently I need permission although I'm an administrator? They are from the clone process I'm sure and not the hard drive software.
The drive is also now called 'pqservice' and not Lacie as it once was and to confuse me further, the properties claim it is only 10gig in size!
Do I need to reformat it and if so to what?
I have Googled this but can't seem to find an explanation for an idiot.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Paul

Lum?

The software may have partitioned your drive, you should be able to see what is going on in disk management which you should find in the computer management tool. Unfortunately I cannot be more specific as I am used to XP not Vista.

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Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
- James May

A quick search suggests to me that pqservice is actually the partition that holds the original installation files for your machine. In cloning your hard disc you've cloned this extra partition which cannot be deleted in the same way that you would delete files.
You may need to look around for instructions on how to delete partitions and reformat the drive to clear the pqservice partition and reclaim the fuill capacity of the disc.
I'm not sure about your comfort level in doing this but you must make sure that you're working on the external version of the files. There will also (obviously) be a pqservice on your local (C) drive and if you try to delete that you could be left with a machine that doesn't boot at all! Be very, very careful what you do in disc management.

As it's an external hard disc (and so won't be installed as a replacement for the internal one) I would consider running a backup of the hard drive from Acronis. I believe the management system loads before Windows so you have the option to restore a backup from that point rather than waiting for the operating system to load.
Hope this helps. Good luck!

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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

As Toltec says, go in to Disk Manager and delete any partitions you find on the Lacie drive - then create a new partition.

If you want cross compatibility with operating systems prior to Windows 2000, then you'll have to format it to use the FAT32 filing system (which is what they are formatted with by default).


PS

Instead of cloning your laptop drive to the Lacie, select the option to create a backup image of your laptop drive and then select the folder to save it to on the Lacie.

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

Thank you very much everyone!
That sorted it.

How much was it?
I just bought a 640Gb Western Digital drive in Comet today, for £49.95.

I was actually checking out their price for a 320Gb, which PC World had at the same price!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Hiya Ernest
I think it should have cost around £80 from Asda but my sister- in- law who works for Asda used her discount and got it cheaper.
A few relatives pitched in for a birthday present for me and will do the same for a copy of Windows 7 for Christmas (£50 at the moment).
Beats bloody jumpers and I'll use them both to death - apparently I'm a nightmare to buy for.

PW.

Whilst browsing in Tesco last night I noticed that they have an Iomega 1TB external drive for just short of seventy quid.

"Offer runs until 28th August" I think it said but I'm guessing they'll sell out before then!

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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.