Can this drive be safely reformatted multiple times without losing any space? (for live/bootable operating systems and such)
2085602
I'e checked it can be formatted to be bootable. Ubuntu boots in less a minute. I think it was reformatted by me about 100 times for testing speed with different fs, I don't see any lost space.
293116
If your using it as a secondary drive Windows will reformat it for you. I reformatted mine several times.
2101324
Yes this can be used simultaneously. When you format it (on a Mac), just don't choose the Mac exclusive option. And yes you could even partition the drive to be bootable from Mac OS and a Windows OS if you wanted, or even a three way partition with one Linux.
2071390
Absolutely. I have a bunch of them that I use as live-USB drives. Just remember that once you install bootable Linux on a USB stick, you will have to erase the first block of the MBR in order to reformat it for some other use. There are plenty of "how to" articles at AskUbuntu.com.
945956
You can format this drive to either FAT32, NTFS, ExFAT, or whatever. Will work for system backup or making a recovery disk.
1728918
When you reformat a drive all of the data will be wiped out. Always make it a practice to backup your data because sooner or later a drive could go bad.
1923240
Shouldn't auto format but would most likely give you the option to format/wipe both drives as WHS partitions are not supported.
361680
Yes, in one of two ways. You can partition the whole drive as ExFAT, or have a Windows partition (FAT32) and a Mac partition (HFS+).
426231
Is this compatible with Windows 7 without going through the hassle of a new drive???
1546701
I wouldn't do that. I'd use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your drive first. If you can.
2219864
Yes, I reformatted mine to ExFAT immediately after I got it. Been working fine as a media drive I switch between Windows and OSX with no issues at all.
843172
That's the beauty of the Drobo...you can start with 3 drives then add more later without a problem. The Drobo will resize itself for you. Even better, if you want to replace a drive with a bigger one, you can simply take out the small drive and put in a bigger drive without reformatting. Drobo takes care of everything!
65576
You can simply put a FAT32 partition on your drive and do it that way. You can do that in windows without downloading anything.
1812123
No but you can boot from a standalone CD program and make a copy of a drive that has been freshly formatted.
717027
Yes, if the disk is still good, it can be overwritten as often as you need to. Just delete what you don't want saved. -fred
603727
Can't help with any specific advice as I am using my drive with a Mac, but I can't see why there would be a problem. If you received a drive pre-formatted for a Macintosh, then doubtless, you need to use a Windows program to reformat it. Good Luck!
838530
Yes. You can pretty much format any drive you like to a FAT32. You can find many freeware programs that will do this. It still is going strong as my Wii U storage device.