File Extension RTF may not be familiar to newer computer users. In these days of MS Office 2007’s docx format and backwards file version compatibility, the rtf file has fallen by the wayside, forgotten as the format that can be read by almost any other word processing software.

The Rich Text Format (often abbreviated File Extension RTF) is a document file format developed by Microsoft in 1987 for cross-platform document interchange. Most word processors are able to read and write RTF documents.

Unlike most word processing formats, good RTF code can be made human-readable. That is to say that when an RTF file is opened in a text editor, the text is legible and the markup language is not too distracting or counter-intuitive. The RTF files produced by most programs, such as MS Word, will contain such a large number of control codes for compatibility with older programs that most files will easily be an order of magnitude larger than the raw text and very difficult to read. Formats such as MS Word’s .doc are, in contrast, binary formats with only a few scraps of legible text.

So next time you would like to share an MS Word document with someone who does not have the Microsoft program to open it, try saving it with file extension RTF.

It is usually are movie files created for viewing in Quicktime. File Extension Mov will tell you that, as well as give you a quick introduction to .mov files and what usually happens when you try to open one from Windows File Manager and you don’t have Quicktime installed.

With the size of hard disks that come with computer or laptop systems these days it is not difficult to have almost every media player there is that can be safely downloaded from the internet.

File Extension Mov offers a free downloadable program on their website that they say can help you determine if you need any extra drivers or programs to run or open whatever files you have open on your computer.

In my opinion, however, unless the file is something you know you yourself created, or if it was from a reliable source, whatever is needed to open it is already on your computer. On a Windows system this would mean Media player to open video or audio files, Notepad to open any text files, or Windows write to open a document in rtf format. File Extension Mov may also help you find out which program you need, if in case you don’t have them on hand.

It just takes a bit of research and the right sources to make sure you get the right programs.

I had just recently purchased a Buffalo external hard drive with 250GB capacity, to hold the photos I’ve been taking with my new Nikon D60 camera. But since the space was there I figured I’d use it for storing my other non-office files as well. That is, until I tried copying a file that was 5GB in size.

I was stumped when Windows told me the disk I was copying into did not have enough space for the 5GB file, which was strange because there was over 200GB left in the drive. A quick search through the Buffalo forums revealed that the drive—connected via the USB port—was formatted in FAT and therefore had the 4GB file size limit. The thing to do was to format the drive into NTSC. Doing this would limit file access to the drive by only Windows XP/Vista systems, but that was what I had anyway. But how could I do that when Windows only lets you format USB drives in FAT?

GetUSB.info taught me how. The illustrated step-by-step on how to format any USB drive as NTFS can be found on THIS PAGE. So if you ever have the same problem as I did, head on down there now.

BUT—and this is a very big but—what if you already have files in the USB drive and you don’t want to erase all that is there by re-formatting? You can convert FAT to NTFS directly by following this guide on Microsoft TechNET. However it requires entering commands into a DOS/command prompt window, so if you’re not comfortable with that, you’re better off finding a computer with enough space to hold what you have on your external USB drive, copy everything off, and do the format as suggested by GetUSB.info.

Happy formatting!