This tag is for questions on external hard drives.
41
votes
9answers
328k views
How do I remove a MyBook's “WD SmartWare” virtual CD from my desktop?
I recently got a Western Digital MyBook external hard drive to enable Time Machine. It has its software installed on a "virtual CD" called "WD SmartWare" which shows up on the desktop any time the ...
33
votes
4answers
2k views
Is time a substitute for Safely Remove Hardware?
In Windows 7, before unplugging an external hard disk or flash drive, you are ideally supposed to use the Safely Remove Hardware option to make sure there aren't any writes still pending.
Suppose it ...
30
votes
11answers
42k views
Ubuntu - Automatically mount external drives to /media/LABEL on boot without a user logged in?
This question is similar, but kind of the opposite of what I want. I want external USB drives to be mounted automatically at boot, without anyone logged in, to locations like /media/<label>.
I ...
19
votes
2answers
480 views
What is the tolerable magnetic field (in Tesla) for a hard disk?
I was wondering what would be the safest magnetic field for a hard drive so that the data inside it is safe and not wiped off?
For example I have a 2.1 home theatre system and when I take my android ...
18
votes
3answers
11k views
Permissionless external drive with NTFS
I have an external hard disk which has 1 partition, formatted in NTFS. I use this drive on multiple computers with a different logins on different machines, Windows XP and Windows 7. All files are ...
17
votes
6answers
24k views
Can I install Windows OS (Windows 7) on a removable USB hard drive?
I wanted to take a sneak peak at Windows 7 so I thought of installing it. I have Windows Vista on my laptop which came pre-installed with it. I didnt want to mess with it.
So I created a partition ...
16
votes
5answers
12k views
How can I remount an ejected (not just unmounted) USB drive on Mac?
I frequently eject an usb stick, and then realize I still need it.
If I unmount the drive in Disk Utility, I can just remount it, but if I eject, it's gone.
Not showed in Finder
Not showed in ...
14
votes
1answer
22k views
Why Do Some USB Cables Have Two USB Connectors at the End?
I've recently bought an external hard drive enclosure and it had arrived with an USB cable, with one USB connector on one side and two on the other. Why do some USB cables have two connectors while ...
14
votes
4answers
4k views
Which virtual machine can boot from USB drive?
There are any desktop (not hipervisor) virtual machine software able to boot from USB drive? Which one and how?
13
votes
3answers
9k views
Difference between SATA and eSATA
Is the following correct?
eSATA is SATA except the cable plug has a slightly different shape. As far as the electrical signal goes it's the exact same thing. In theory if you had a powered-on HDD ...
12
votes
9answers
33k views
How does the USB 3 speed compare to eSATA? [closed]
Will the full speed advantages of the future USB 3.0 be negated by the fact the most HD being mass produced are SATA 3? If so, what would you suggest a person do? For performance reasons, I go with ...
12
votes
2answers
13k views
How do I make an external hard drive keep the same drive letter permanently?
I have a desktop PC (2002 vintage) running Windows XP that I turn on about 2 or 3 times per week. I have a mains powered 250Gb Western Digital hard disk connected to it via USB. I always turn the hard ...
11
votes
8answers
5k views
How much time until an unused hard drive loses its data?
Do you guys know how much time needs to pass until the data stored on a hard drive starts to degrade?
To keep the data intact for long periods of time, I heard you need to periodically rewrite it on ...
11
votes
3answers
7k views
Ubuntu - How to automount an external drive at a preconfigured mount point?
Normally, when I attach an external USB drive to my Ubuntu system, the filesystem on it are automounted to /media/label. However, I'd like the filesystem to be mounted at a mount point of my choosing. ...
9
votes
6answers
21k views
Util to check external USB Drive health?
I tried a few utils and none of them worked. Either USB wasnt supported or the drive was 'recognized'. I am trying to figure out if i should dump the drive or not. Its only a year old but the warranty ...
9
votes
6answers
3k views
2.2 TB limit applies even to eSATA drives? 3TB appears as 746 GB
I have an Icy Dock 3.5" external enclosure with USB 2.0 and eSATA. I have an Intel DG45ID motherboard with USB 2.0 and eSATA ports. In the past I had a 2 TB Seagate drive in the enclosure, and it ...
8
votes
5answers
1k views
What can I do with a large Hard Drive?
So I'm looking into the world of external Hard Drives bigger than I can easily comprehend (1-2TB sort of sizes. A few years ago I thought 100GB was big. Blimey), and just wondering what possible uses ...
8
votes
3answers
20k views
How to password protect an external hard drive without encrypting it?
I carry my external hard drive around with me sometimes, and was wondering if there was a way to password protect the entire drive, with no hassles or anything, just a simple password protection...if ...
8
votes
3answers
18k views
Can I trick Carbonite into backing up an external hard drive?
I use Carbonite to back up my PC (Windows XP). We were running low on disk space on our home PC (down to 15 GB), so I went out and purchased an external hard drive. However, Carbonite will ...
8
votes
7answers
55k views
How to read and write Mac drives on Windows
I have some external hard drives that are Mac OS Extended (Journaled) formatted. What software can you recommend for working with those drives when under Windows? Do you have any experience with this?
...
8
votes
4answers
431 views
Safely remove external USB drive fails due to $extend
When connecting an external USB 3.0 hard drive to my USB 3.0 ports I can never safely remove it.
Somehow windows always keeps the journal files open:
"Always" as in this time I only connected the ...
8
votes
1answer
21k views
How can I boot Ubuntu 10.04 on my MacBook Pro from a USB hard drive?
I installed Ubuntu 10.04 to my MacBook Pro (not the latest gen with i7, but one before that) on an external, USB harddrive (GRUB installed to the external as well).
When I hold down the option key to ...
8
votes
1answer
13k views
USB stick appearing as hard disk drive, not removable storage device
I just plugged in a very simple 1GB USB stick from the office in hopes of making it a Fedora Live USB stick. For that to work, I need a removable storage device, or else it won't appear in LiveUSB ...
7
votes
8answers
9k views
Which file system to use for a large (1 TB) external hard drive?
I've got a 1 TB hard disk drive which is currently formatted as NTFS. I've recently learned about exFAT. I'm connecting this drive via USB. Which filesystem should I use for this large hard disk drive ...
7
votes
2answers
775 views
How do I browse a hard drive that has viruses?
I'm going to be connecting a notebook SATA drive to my computer via USB. This drive may be faulty so it may not work at all, however before it went supposedly "bad" it had a virus on it.
My computer ...
7
votes
3answers
8k views
Formatting : The volume is too big for FAT32
Formatting an external 500GB HDD took almost >6 hours that I started like:
D:\>format /FS:fat32 F:
The type of the file system is EXFAT.
The new file system is FAT32.
Enter current volume label ...
7
votes
2answers
49k views
How to copy files to read-only NTFS hard drive on a Mac
I want to copy my some files from Mac (Macbook-Air) to a USB external hard drive, formatted as NTFS.
How is it possible? Because when I do copy my files from the Mac and go to paste them on the ...
7
votes
5answers
33k views
How can I install Windows 7 from an external hard drive?
I followed the instructions here, but
format fs=fat32 quick
did not work, it gave the following error:
Virtual Disk Service error:
The volume size is too big.
So I then tried just format ...
7
votes
8answers
2k views
Moving files inside my NTFS partition is as slow as copying them. What could be the cause of this?
I'm trying to tidy up my folders and files on one of my NTFS formatted external hard drives, a 2TB Western Digital Elements drive.
When trying to move files from one folder to the other, the process ...
6
votes
9answers
6k views
Can't read External Hard Drive anymore!
I've had a WD external hard drive for a while, all of a sudden a couple of weeks ago it stopped working.
When I plug it in, windows prompts me to "Format Disk",
I also tried it from linux mint, but ...
6
votes
4answers
46k views
How to use external hard disk in both Windows and Mac OS X?
I have one external hard drive (Seagate 320 GB). I have used my hard drive in a Windows XP system and it works fine (Read and write). But when I used it on a Mac, I couldn't write any file on the disk ...
6
votes
5answers
736 views
Best way to encrypt 100GB+ of data
I have an external hard drive with a couple hundred gigabytes of backups (music, photos, video, etc). I want someone I know to back it up on their hard drive, but I want to password protect my files ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
What do I need to do to install Windows onto my new SSD?
I am in the process of building a new computer, and while I'm still waiting on the important parts of the computer, like the CPU and the Motherboard, my 120 GB Solid State drive has arrived, and I ...
6
votes
7answers
9k views
Recovering damaged external hard disk by installing internally
I had a 1TB Western Digital (My book series) 3.5" USB3. One day, the SATA to USB3 converter board was damaged and has not worked since.
I decided to open the cover and use the HDD as an internal ...
6
votes
5answers
159 views
Can storing my HDDs airtight damage them in anyway?
I have lost many electronics that I keep unused for a long time before due to the near sea (high humidity area) area that I live in. I learned this the hard way, so in order to protect hard drives ...
6
votes
5answers
1k views
External Solid State Drives
How does the performance of an external SSD drive compare to an internal?
I'm assuming the connection would be USB 2.0 - would that be the limiting factor in speed? Is it a waste of money?
EDIT - ...
6
votes
1answer
2k views
Newly formatted (NTFS) external hard drive already has 'Used space'. What determines the used space's amount? Is it correlated to the HD's capacity?
I just bought a new external hard drive (WD Elements - 1 TB). In a PC with Windows 7, I formatted it by Right-clicking the drive > Format (Quick Format - NTFS) before using it and, and then checked ...
6
votes
2answers
19k views
Convert NTFS volume to exFAT (without losing contents)
I have a 500GB external hard disk which I use mostly for storing movies/music and some backup. Since I have some rather large files I use NTFS on it, but don't need the security/compression/encryption ...
6
votes
2answers
174 views
Is it safe to just yank an external hard drive if you know nothing is writing to it?
Yes, I know somewhat about the possibility of data corruption if there was data that hadn't been all written to it.
But I just saw this:
Note:If u remove HDD(not USB sticks)
without safely ...
6
votes
1answer
6k views
Copy Address Book, iCal and Mail from one disk to another
What files and folders do I need to copy to bring my old Address Book, iCal entries and Mail messages onto my new computer? I see a whole bunch of options on my machine, some of which have not been ...
6
votes
1answer
208 views
Hard drive not working after some partitioning
I guess I know the ultimate answer already but there's too many variables that don't line up for me to be satisfied with it.
Last night and this morning I was shrinking partitions using Windows ...
6
votes
1answer
2k views
How to find out WHEN a usb disk was removed?
I have got an external disk probably stolen from my computer at work. Is there any way to see in some system logs at what time this device was removed / unmounted? My operating system is Windows 7 ...
6
votes
3answers
2k views
External SATA drive does not work without the optional USB cable *also* connected
I have Vantec NST-260SU external eSATA/USB drive enclosure (which came with an optional separate power supply - 5v/2A, while the drive needs a max of 1A) connected to a relatively new Windows 7 ...
5
votes
4answers
11k views
Sync two external harddrives?
A little mishap happened earlier today and i am thinking i should have a copy of my external harddrive since 10% of it is very valuable. What is the best solution to keep two external harddrive in ...
5
votes
3answers
4k views
How to encrypt data on an external hard drive?
I want to secure my external (1 TB) hard drive that I use as a physical back-up for my home computer so that if the drive is stolen (eg burglary) then the data is not easily accessible by a common or ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
Are Time Machine backups secure?
I have my Time Machine backups on an external disk (WD My Passport with no hardware encryption) and I'm worried if the data stored on the disk is safe in case somebody steals it and connect it to any ...
5
votes
4answers
28k views
Can't change permission/ownership/group of external hard drive on Ubuntu
I have an external hard drive connected to my Linux box. I wanted to setup a web server to access files on it, but the permission on all files and directories on the drive are "rwx" for the owner ...
5
votes
4answers
365 views
External hard drive encryption
I've got a complete backup of my main PC on 1.5 TB external hard drive that I carry around with my laptop so I can have access to all of my files while I'm on the move, however it has just dawned on ...
5
votes
3answers
964 views
What to do with a USB hard drive that is not recognized by any computer
I have a USB HDD that was disconnected from a computer in an improper way. Since than, connecting this disk to any computer has almost no effect: the only thing that changes is the HDD's blue LED ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
How to prevent spotlight from searching external hard drives
I have an external hard drive connected to my Macbook Pro that I always leave on. When I use spotlight to search for something, it always searches this drive. I don't want it to do this because ...
