install/remove external drive

[Guest]

I purchased an 250 GB external drive to store my music library as my laptop
only has 8 GB and my desktop ‘dinosaur’ needs backing up. I will also use
it to back up both computers. The instructions to it made a comment about
know how to safely remove the drive. My laptop has Windows XP and my desktop
has Windows 98. How do I safely remove the drives? I can’t find anything on
the help menus.

Also, I’ve seen posts mentioning formatting the external drive. My
instructions don’t state anything about this. Do I need to do something?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[Sharon Fink]

I purchased an 250 GB external drive to store my music library as my laptop
only has 8 GB and my desktop ‘dinosaur’ needs backing up. I will also use
it to back up both computers. The instructions to it made a comment about
know how to safely remove the drive. My laptop has Windows XP and my desktop
has Windows 98. How do I safely remove the drives? I can’t find anything on
the help menus.

Also, I’ve seen posts mentioning formatting the external drive. My
instructions don’t state anything about this. Do I need to do something?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

There should have been a guide in the box with the drive. Suggest
reading it. Please understand that this is a helpful recommendation -
not a sarcastic one.

One of the things that it will tell you is whether or not the drive has
been pre-formatted and how. The external drive that I purchased recently
was pre-formatted FAT32. This was not useful to me so I re-partitioned
and reformatted the drive with a different file system.

You'll need to figure out what you want to do with yours. You can leave
it a single partition or you can divide it into.. oh, say... two
partitions (one for 98 and one for XP). If you plan on connecting the
drive directly to the Win98 system, you'll want at least one FAT32
partition on that drive.

WinXP can read FAT32 or NTFS volumes so if the drive is pre-formatted
FAT32, you could leave it as is. OR if you prefer to use NTFS for XP,
you'll want to create an NTFS partition for use with XP.

Since you seem to be new at this, the easiest route to take at this
point would be to leave the drive FAT32 (assuming that is how it was set
up at the factory). Both operating systems can read and write to that
format - no matter which machine the drive is attached to.

REMOVING THE DRIVE:
When the drive is connected to XP, the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon
will appear in the Notification Area (the area by the clock on the
taskbar). You can remove the drive from the XP system in one of two
ways:

1) Shut down your computer. Power down external drive (if it uses its
own power source) and disconnect.

2) Click the Safely Remove Hardware Icon and use the window that appears
to "Stop" the USB storage device. Wait a bit and a notice will appear
"It is now safe to remove..." At this point you can unplug the drive
from the USB port.

It's been a long time since I've used Win98 but I don't recall there
being any "safe to remove" icons. I believe method 1 (shut down
computer) is the safest way to remove the drive with this operating
system. While USB devices are hot pluggable, external hard drives still
need to be "closed out" by the operating system when they are
dis-mounted.

Those closing transactions do not happen when you simple pull the (USB)
plug. They will happen when you shut Win98 down (Start> Shutdown) and
when you use the "safely remove" icon in XP.

Hope this helps,

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your response. I found the user manual online and that answered
all of my questions, BUT, created another one.

It states that I should not connect to a hub. I only have one USB port.
How would I connect my iPod? The external was bought primarily to store my
iPod files.

 

[Sharon Fink]

Thanks for your response. I found the user manual online and that answered
all of my questions, BUT, created another one.

It states that I should not connect to a hub. I only have one USB port.
How would I connect my iPod? The external was bought primarily to store my
iPod files.

When I read your original post a second time, I see that you had in fact
read your paper manual and that it lacked the information that you
needed. I'm glad to read that you've found a more detailed manual that
contains the information that you needed.

As for your new question: I've never understood those cautions about not
connecting to a hub as the ports on the computer are (internal) hubs!

My personal compromise has been to connect a device directly to the
computer for initial install - just in case there is a "real" need for
this connection. In the future and if it isn't something that needs to
be connected all of the time, I use whatever device with an external
self-powered hub. External USB drives are power-hungry and the would not
fare well on a USB hub that did not have its own power source or
adequate power source. USB hubs only deliver so much power and this gets
divided among the connected devices.

Sometimes moving a device to a different USB port means the install disk
needs to be presented a second time (creating pointers from that port to
already installed drivers) but after that I have seen no problems with
this method of managing USB devices. If a device has a caution like the
USB drive, it will be the only device connected on that hub at one time.

NOTE: This last tower I built has more USB ports than I know what to do
with - front and back - so the self-powered hub doesn't get used as much
as in the past. AND the drive that I'm using has its own external power
source - that means its power needs from the computer itself are
restricted.

If it's not safe to move the drive to a self powered hub, someone will
chime in rather quickly. (Newsgroupies have a tendency to correct each
other whenever possible )

 

[Elmo]

Thanks for your response. I found the user manual online and that answered
all of my questions, BUT, created another one.

It states that I should not connect to a hub. I only have one USB port.
How would I connect my iPod? The external was bought primarily to store my
iPod files.

Another thought.. you can add a PCI card with more USB ports..

 

[Guest]

'Mybe, I don;t want to spend any more $. I'm putting off getting a new
computer for at least a year - closer to starting grad school. I really
can't afford one now, but this darn iPod had cost me a fortune! By the time
I got the the external/hub, I couldn't had half a laptop! I should have
gotten the computer and said heck with the iPod!!! Thanks for the
suggestion. I'll think about it.

 

[LVTravel]

What Sharon said about the USB hub is correct. If you do use one make sure
it is a powered one (has a wall plug adapter.) I have various
manufacturer's (BusLink, Acom, SimpleTech, Maxtor and USB drive cases where
I've put in my own drives (both 2.5" and 3.5") and never had any problems
using hubs.

What is the brand of your USB external hard drive?

From an earlier post - If you are going to want to use all the files on the
drive with both the Win 98 and XP computers, you must have the drive
formatted as a Fat 32 drive. Most USB drives come formatted that way. If
you can see the drive in Win 98 it is formatted as a FAT 32 drive.

 

[Joe]

There should have been a guide in the box with the drive. Suggest
reading it. Please understand that this is a helpful recommendation -
not a sarcastic one.

One of the things that it will tell you is whether or not the drive has
been pre-formatted and how. The external drive that I purchased recently
was pre-formatted FAT32. This was not useful to me so I re-partitioned
and reformatted the drive with a different file system.

You'll need to figure out what you want to do with yours. You can leave
it a single partition or you can divide it into.. oh, say... two
partitions (one for 98 and one for XP). If you plan on connecting the
drive directly to the Win98 system, you'll want at least one FAT32
partition on that drive.

WinXP can read FAT32 or NTFS volumes so if the drive is pre-formatted
FAT32, you could leave it as is. OR if you prefer to use NTFS for XP,
you'll want to create an NTFS partition for use with XP.

Since you seem to be new at this, the easiest route to take at this
point would be to leave the drive FAT32 (assuming that is how it was set
up at the factory). Both operating systems can read and write to that
format - no matter which machine the drive is attached to.

REMOVING THE DRIVE:
When the drive is connected to XP, the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon
will appear in the Notification Area (the area by the clock on the
taskbar). You can remove the drive from the XP system in one of two
ways:

1) Shut down your computer. Power down external drive (if it uses its
own power source) and disconnect.

2) Click the Safely Remove Hardware Icon and use the window that appears
to "Stop" the USB storage device. Wait a bit and a notice will appear
"It is now safe to remove..." At this point you can unplug the drive
from the USB port.

It's been a long time since I've used Win98 but I don't recall there
being any "safe to remove" icons. I believe method 1 (shut down
computer) is the safest way to remove the drive with this operating
system. While USB devices are hot pluggable, external hard drives still
need to be "closed out" by the operating system when they are
dis-mounted.

Those closing transactions do not happen when you simple pull the (USB)
plug. They will happen when you shut Win98 down (Start> Shutdown) and
when you use the "safely remove" icon in XP.

Hope this helps,

Oh dear lets not get all PC, excuse the pun.
Joe

 

[Joe]

What Sharon said about the USB hub is correct. If you do use one make
sure it is a powered one (has a wall plug adapter.) I have various
manufacturer's (BusLink, Acom, SimpleTech, Maxtor and USB drive cases
where I've put in my own drives (both 2.5" and 3.5") and never had any
problems using hubs.

What is the brand of your USB external hard drive?

From an earlier post - If you are going to want to use all the files on
the drive with both the Win 98 and XP computers, you must have the drive
formatted as a Fat 32 drive. Most USB drives come formatted that way. If
you can see the drive in Win 98 it is formatted as a FAT 32 drive.

Hi I use a 4 port hub, my PV has a 500W power supply. The hub has a
external power supply that I never use. Bottom line is if the power for the
PC is high enough use a hub. It will work ok.
Joe

 

[Sharon F]

Oh dear lets not get all PC, excuse the pun.

No problem, Joe. I was just trying to point out why the directions for the
OP's drive were so specific about using the safely remove icon.