[Why is it ?]/[what can be done about ?] that Casper5 can clone to a HDD that has been FDisked, but not to that same disk if it has only been partitioned by WinXP as a Basic Drive through Control Panel; Administrative Tools; Computer Management; Storage - Disk Management; right-click the drive - Delete Partition; right-click the Unallocated drive - New Partition; select Primary; assign a drive letter; Format. Basty

Just a guess that the reason is Fdisk formats into FAT32, and XP formats into NTFS file system, except XP formats a floppy disk into FAT32. http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... Overview of FAT, HPFS, and NTFS File Systems

That is interesting, but considering the fact that Casper5 will clone equally easily over Fat32 as NTFS, it should not make THE difference. Basty

I'm not familiar with Casper5, but have you contacted their Support and asked them this question. If anyone would know, they would. EEOC

>> xcept XP formats a floppy disk into FAT32 << Actually XP formats a floppy into FAT12. It will also format a hard disk in FAT32 if you tell it to. Stuart

If a partition is larger than 32gb, XP uses NTFS partitioning - you don't have any other choice. The reason for that is Microsoft deliberately did that because it considers using FAT32 for a partition larger than that more wasteful of disk space regarding the slack space that can't be used to store data, but if most of your files on a partition are large, there is little difference between using FAT32 and NTFS partitioning regarding slack space used up. If you want to use FAT32 partitioning for a partion larger than 32gb, you have to use ME's Fdisk, or 98SE's or 98's updated Fdisk (the original version has bugs - it can't partition a partition larger than 64gb), or a freeeware Dos's Fdisk, or some third party program such as a free hard drive manufacturer's disk preparation program - XP will recognize that FAT32 partition fine. If a partition is smaller than 32gb, in XP, you have the choice of FAT32 or NTFS partitioning. If it's 2.1 gb or smaller, you have the choice of FAT32 or FAT partitioning. It's not recommended for you to use NTFS partitioning for any partition 4gb or smaller on anything.

Sebastian42, a good cloning program should clone to any disk including a blank one. I would suggest that you switch to something better like Acronis or Ghost.