External Hard Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter BichonMom
  • Start date Start date
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BichonMom

O.K., I only know enough to be dangerous...but, I bought this ext hard drive
trying to be proactive regarding losing data should my PC croak. So I am all
Pollyanna happy thinking it has copied all my data over until I realized I
don't know that for sure...in fact I don't even know how to use it as there
was no manual or anything resembling one.
It is a Beyond Micro 250GB with just a on/off switch and a evil little green
eye staring at me. I have Windows XP Home. So can anyone tell me if that's
how they work-do I leave it on the whole time my computer is on or ?
(user error...delete user and click ok...:-))
Thanks,
Joni
 
BichonMom wrote:
> O.K., I only know enough to be dangerous...but, I bought this ext hard drive
> trying to be proactive regarding losing data should my PC croak. So I am all
> Pollyanna happy thinking it has copied all my data over until I realized I
> don't know that for sure...in fact I don't even know how to use it as there
> was no manual or anything resembling one.
> It is a Beyond Micro 250GB with just a on/off switch and a evil little green
> eye staring at me. I have Windows XP Home. So can anyone tell me if that's
> how they work-do I leave it on the whole time my computer is on or ?
> (user error...delete user and click ok...:-))
> Thanks,
> Joni
>

An external hard drive by itself will do nothing automatically. It's
just a hard drive. Some external hard drives like Western Digital MyBook
and Maxtor One Touch come with backup software. Look at the box of the
drive you bought or go to their website or read the manual if it came
with one to see whether your drive has a backup program. Hint: If it
did, it would have come with a installation CD or started a program when
you first turned it on connected to the computer.

An external hard drive is connected to a computer by either USB (more
common on PCs) or firewire. Most of them come pre-formatted. Once you
have connected it (and turned it on) to your computer, it should appear
as a drive in My Computer. You can then copy files to it or run a backup
program such as SecondCopy (www.centered.com).


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
 
Thanks Malke!
I went to the website when I bought it and they only have the skimpy little
4 page installation manual online. It has a installation CD but says (for
XP) "the system already provides the support for the software (please do not
install again unless necessary)."
So does that mean I just need to download something like SecondCopy?

"Malke" <notreally@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:O%23JRUHE0HHA.3772@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
BichonMom wrote:
> O.K., I only know enough to be dangerous...but, I bought this ext hard
> drive
> trying to be proactive regarding losing data should my PC croak. So I am
> all
> Pollyanna happy thinking it has copied all my data over until I realized I
> don't know that for sure...in fact I don't even know how to use it as
> there
> was no manual or anything resembling one.
> It is a Beyond Micro 250GB with just a on/off switch and a evil little
> green
> eye staring at me. I have Windows XP Home. So can anyone tell me if that's
> how they work-do I leave it on the whole time my computer is on or ?
> (user error...delete user and click ok...:-))
> Thanks,
> Joni
>

An external hard drive by itself will do nothing automatically. It's
just a hard drive. Some external hard drives like Western Digital MyBook
and Maxtor One Touch come with backup software. Look at the box of the
drive you bought or go to their website or read the manual if it came
with one to see whether your drive has a backup program. Hint: If it
did, it would have come with a installation CD or started a program when
you first turned it on connected to the computer.

An external hard drive is connected to a computer by either USB (more
common on PCs) or firewire. Most of them come pre-formatted. Once you
have connected it (and turned it on) to your computer, it should appear
as a drive in My Computer. You can then copy files to it or run a backup
program such as SecondCopy (www.centered.com).


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
 
BichonMom wrote:
> Thanks Malke!
> I went to the website when I bought it and they only have the skimpy little
> 4 page installation manual online. It has a installation CD but says (for
> XP) "the system already provides the support for the software (please do not
> install again unless necessary)."
> So does that mean I just need to download something like SecondCopy?

It sounds like the drive did not come with any backup software. I'm
assuming you've turned it on and connected it to your computer and it
shows up in My Computer. You might want to double-click its icon in My
Computer and see if there is anything on the drive.

If there isn't anything on the drive and you can copy a file to it, then
sure - find a backup program you like. I recommend Second Copy for
backups and Acronis True Image for imaging and backups. To understand
both Second Copy and True Image, go to www.centered.com and
www.acronis.com for more information.


Make
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
 
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