# Can I change hard drive to previous format?



## aa4wp (Apr 17, 2009)

I have a 120 GB WD Passport external drive. I plugged it into my leased 211k receiver, and to my surprise, it worked, showing approximately 10 + hours of HD space. However, since the drive is powered by the receiver, I thought better and discontinued use after about an hour of experimental operation. Now comes the hard part....how in the world do I get my Windows based (XP Pro) computer to recognize the Passport drive? In other words, how to return the drive to ordinary use. I tried a "recovery" application, and it recognized that two drives are present, a drive 0 (zero); my "C" root drive (320 GB), and drive 1, the 120 GB drive, which used to be known as drive "E". 

Also, when I use the Ubuntu system software, it does recognize that drive; just cannot load anything from it to the work space.

Wendell


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Deja vu all over again... I posted the following in the 612/622/722 support forum in response to a similar question...

Dish formats with a Linux partition... so you will need to go into "Disk Manager" or whatever it might be called depending upon your version of Windows, and from there you'll have the options to delete/format partitions with a Windows recognizable file system.


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## aa4wp (Apr 17, 2009)

Well Stewart....

You really hit the nail on the head. I never knew that I could do that; I should read the instructions. I have the usual male syndrome...never read the directions. Nice thing is that most things one does is very intuitive, and that is a good thing. Now I have a spare hard drive; I'lll probably put pictures on it and play them on the Samsung TV.

Thanks a whole lot.

And I did do a search before I posed the question.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

You're welcome... It's just a weird coincidence that someone with a 622 asked the very same question in the past week for somewhat similar reasons.

I used to do more drive swapping on my older computers, and basically developed the habit of always deleting partitions and "starting over" before re-formatting long ago as a way of being sure I always knew where I was.


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