Ext hard drive ??? & pc performance recomd'd settings???

Vista 32 bit Home basic, bios;

2 TOPIC QUESTION

Performance Options ?? what is the recommended best choice for PC

Visual effects settings for appearance/performance of windows?
1. let windows choose whats best
2. adjust for best appearance
3. adjust for best performance
or 4. custom

processor scheduling/ how to allocate processor resources of:
1.programs
2. or background services?

virtual memory
A PAGING FILE AREA ON HARD DISL THAT WINDOWS uses as if it were RAM?
1. what paging file size for all drives:
-what is recommended size?____________???

DEP protection/data execution prevention, *what is recommended setting?
1. turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only ?
(or)
2. turn on DEP for all programs and services except those i select?
(my computer's processor supports hardware-based DEP)

Portable External Hard Drive ????

Western digital elements 1.5TB desktop version portable external hard drive. intended use; - additional memory/storage space for laptop/PC's,
- complete system, drives files, documents, etc. & family computer storage, portable memory/storage also

Problem is that before initial data transfer was done, by 3rd party a seperate PC's files were transfered to the ext. hard drive.

No partitioning, formating, or allocation for additional storage memory was done -external hard drive now has 2 PC's data & all contents of external HD are in "folders", system shows as "hard drive",

Manufacturer instructions state once data is on drive, do not format !!!!!!DATA WILL BE GONE!!!

1. (What is the difference between 'formating' and making the drive more manageable?

2. can allocating space for portable storage/memory" be done at this point or what do i have to do without loosing my 2 computer's contents?

3.everything on the External hard drive is on 1 partition/disk-
backups are instructed to be in seperate locations from OS, how can this be done now?

4. How can external hard drive properties be managed to suit my needs without loosing everything already transfered.?
Can I do anything now with this 1.5TB ?????

thank you!

For your first question:
1. Let Windows choose
2. Leave it alone, don't touch
3. See #2
4. See #2

Second question:
1. I'm not quite sure what you are asking. Formatting a drive will erase the contents. However, if you've already backed up data to the drive, it should be fine. It was formatted already, prior to the data being moved to it.
2. Again, not sure what you are asking, but if the drive is already storing data, it is ready to be used.

Are you trying to repartition the external drive into one large solid drive letter? If so, you'll need to copy off all important data. If it already one solid large drive, leave it that way and use it. Ignore the comments about memory. Those are used (poorly) because most non-technies still can't differentiate between memory and hard drive space.