external hard drive for PC + pro tools LE

[driches]

i know "which hard drive" has been asked a lot but i couldn't find this specific answer.

I have a new dell laptop, pretty good specs, xp, and am using pro tools le 7.4 with an mbox. i have a western digital external hard drive, but it won't let me record to it. i went to the workstation or whatever tab, and it said i couldn't change it to "record" because it's a "FAT32" drive. i don't know what that means.

my question is, is the hard drive just not going to work for this, or can i do something to it? if i have to get a new one, what do i have to look for in specs?

[focusonthechart]

Reformat the drive with an NTFS file system.

Digidesign | Support | Hard Drive Requirements - Pro Tools LE for Windows

• Please Note: FAT32 Volumes Not Supported for Recording with Pro Tools 7.4 and Higher for Windows
  • Pro Tools 7.3.x is the last version of Pro Tools that supports FAT32 for Recording.
  • Pro Tools 7.4 and higher for Windows XP and Windows Vista do not support FAT32 for recording, but will continue to support FAT32 formatted volumes for Playback and Transfer.

[Ladia - Audeum]

Hi,
In order the drive to be recognized as an audio drive you have to format it in acceptable format for your recording software. in this case NTFS file system.
Here are simple steps for you to follow :

1.Connect the external drive to the laptop and power it up

2.Right click on the "my computer" icon on your desktop

3.Select "Manage"

4.click on "Disk Management"

5.Right click in the area of the disk and select "delete Partition" ( will destroy all data and delete the FAT32 partition)

6.Right click in the area of the disk and select "New Partition"

7.Choose "primary Partition"

8.Select desired size of the partition. I'd recommend one undivided partition with maximum size, click NEXT.

9. Select the NTFS file system and leave allocation unit size default ,specify the name of the disk in the Volume label window.

10.Click next and Finish.

Your Disk will be formatted in NTFS file system and should be recognized by Pro Tools as a Valid Audio Partition for recording.
Good Luck on your audio project !

[optikstrange]

Originally Posted by driches

i know "which hard drive" has been asked a lot but i couldn't find this specific answer.

I have a new dell laptop, pretty good specs, xp, and am using pro tools le 7.4 with an mbox. i have a western digital external hard drive, but it won't let me record to it. i went to the workstation or whatever tab, and it said i couldn't change it to "record" because it's a "FAT32" drive. i don't know what that means.

my question is, is the hard drive just not going to work for this, or can i do something to it? if i have to get a new one, what do i have to look for in specs?

Which dell laptop are u running XPS,Dell studio??? and how well does protools run on it??id like to know cause i plan on buying a laptop soon and the new dells look kinda cool.

But yeah format and u should be good.