I bought an unformatted External Hard Drive.To save time I chose to do a quick format instead of a full format the drive. - All seemed OKI copied my user's profile to the drive - all seemed OKYou could see all the files - word, excel, MP3 ect etc in their various locationsHowever - when I clicked on any of them they would not open and their properties showed them as being 0KB- it was as if the image of the file icon had been copied but not the file content.Luckily as I’d copied the files, and not cut/pasted, I had still the originals. I did a full format and recopied the profile – this time around all was fine. My question is – was I wrong to quick format the unformatted HD? Did that cause the problem described above? Or should it not have made any difference which one I chose and either should have worked perfectly? I’m thinking that quick formatting an unformatted drive for the first time caused this but I'm unsure Please can someone help me out to clear my doubts as I don’t want to repeat THAT again Many many thanks M

I've had cohorts who would chide me for doing a full formats instead of using the quick format option - my reply - you do it your way, I KNOW my way always works and never has problems - unlike your methods, however they think they are right and I know I'm right ;) I always do a full format - every time. Now I wouldn't say you were wrong, as they say, stuff happens. I would change your type from question to discussion since this really isn't a problem question but more of an inquiry to satisfy your thoughts. MCSE, MCSA, MCDST [If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.]