New
#1
Two different External HD must be formatted?
I'm using an external HD to record TV (with Windows Media Center) and everything is copyright protected. I also use it to backup my stuff.
The other day my OLD HD stop responding, it would take a couple minutes to be recognized by windows and sometimes windows would say "You need to format this drive to use it" - (I never did btw) - I just restarted the computer.
However...
When it WAS recognized it would not respond and I could not play the recorded TV - WMC would hang.
Also, if I tried to open a file it would hang.
I figured the drive had died and I bought a replacement from another maker (seagate) and all seemed well for a couple of days until I got another popup from Windows saying I needed to format the drive to use it. (I did not)
I restarted the computer and the drive was recognized and everything is working as normal (no hanging).
Also - the new drive letter was named (D) - which is also my external CD/DVD drive which is only plugged in when I play a movie (which is rare) or (god forbid) reinstall Windows.
So my questions are -
(1) If I change my new drive letter to (E), will WMC play the copyrighted TV?
(2) If I change my CD/DVD player drive letter to (E) can it still be used to (god forbid) reinstall windows? Is there something in BIOS that would insist that the drive letter be (D) ?
(3) Why is this happening?
FYI - I plugged in my OLD HD to a different computer and the "hanging" problem persisted, which is why I figured it had died, but now I'm getting the "must reformat" message with this NEW HD. I worried that the next time I reboot the new HD will not be recognized and hang like my old HD.
Any thoughts?
Thanks