How do I install my FireWire Hard Drive in Windows XP?

Support is built in natively into Windows XP. Like Windows 2000, no extra drivers are required. The FAT32 issue evident in both FireWire and IDE drives has been somewhat resolved in Windows XP. The major changes are listed below:

  • When creating a partition larger than 32 GB, Windows XP will only allow NTFS partitions by default. The option for FAT32 partition is no longer present in XP.
  • If the partition is equal to or smaller than 32 GB, then the format option for FAT32 is available. This means that the “Volume Too Large” error that appeared in Windows 2000 will no longer occur.


For FireWire hard drives, there is now an added option for either Disk Performance or Quick Remove under Windows XP. Descriptions of these features are listed below:
  • If Quick Remove is selected, Windows XP will not cache the disk information, meaning the FireWire drive can be unplugged at anytime without data loss.
  • If Disk Performance is selected, Windows XP will cache the disk information, thus increasing the performance of the FireWire drive.


To remove the drive safely, click on the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the Start menu. This will dismount the FireWire drive and allow for safe removal of the drive without any data loss.

Windows XP has driver support necessary to run the WD FireWire hard drive. However, the drive will not show up in My Computer or Explorer until it is partitioned and formatted. Use Disk Management in Windows XP to partition and format the drive.

To set up the FireWire hard drive with Disk Management, follow these steps:

To access Disk Management:
  1. Right-click on My Computer
  2. Select Manage to bring up the Windows Computer Management interface.
  3. Click on the Disk Management folder under Storage in the left-hand panel.
In two separate windows on the right-hand side of the screen, a graphical representation of the partitions on the installed drives displays. The top window shows the drive's status, capacity, and file system. In the bottom window, you will see a representation of the drives in the system starting with the boot drive (drive 0). In almost all cases, you will want to work with the bottom window.

To create a partition with Disk Management:
  1. Right-click on the space you want to work with. This space is represented by a white box with a black bar on top listing the available space on the drive as Unallocated.
  2. Select Create Partition.
  3. The Create Partition Wizard appears. Click Next to continue and select the type of partition (Primary or Extended) that you wish to create. Click Next again.
  4. Select the size of the partition you wish to create and click Next to continue.
  5. At the next screen, select a drive letter to assign to the partition.
  6. Click Next to continue. The Format screen appears. In Format, you can select the file system, volume label, and allocation unit size you wish to create on the drive.
  7. In almost all cases, it is best to leave the allocation unit size at default. If you are not dual booting and do not need to use this drive in a Win9x or Win ME system, it is also recommended that you use NTFS as the file system (you can also select FAT16 or FAT32). If you prefer, you may also choose to not format the drive at this time.
  8. Click Next to verify the process and the choices you selected.
  9. Click Finish to complete the process.

Close this Window