External hard drive

[brickman]

Can I turn my newly installed external hard drive on and off at will? Of
course, after it has finished working. Thank you for any help!

 

[Big_Al]

brickman said this on 3/9/2009 10:27 AM:

Can I turn my newly installed external hard drive on and off at will? Of
course, after it has finished working. Thank you for any help!

If its a USB connection, you can use the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon
in the tray, and then turn it off or unplug.

 

[brickman]

Thank you, Big_Al!

brickman said this on 3/9/2009 10:27 AM:

If its a USB connection, you can use the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon
in the tray, and then turn it off or unplug.

 

[brickman]

Is there any benefit to turning it off, since I only use it once in a while
to store photos and video?

 

[John Barnett MVP]

My external hard drive is only powered up for the time I am actually using
it. As soon as I've finished backing up or whatever I am doing with the
external drive I click on the safely remove hardware icon, stop the process,
and then turn the external hard drive off. It is pointless keeping the
external drive running if you aren't going to use it, you are only wasting
power. Once I've finished with my external drive off goes the power and it
stays off until the next time I need to use it. The only time the power
stays on is if I know I'm going to be using the external drive again within
30 minutes to an hour.

--
John Barnett MVP
Windows XP Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://www.winuser.co.uk
Web: http://www.silversurfer-guide.com
Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org


The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
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use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Big_Al]

brickman said this on 3/9/2009 10:50 AM:

Is there any benefit to turning it off, since I only use it once in a while
to store photos and video?

Only that if you get a rampant attack from either an intruder or a virus
/ trojan etc, if the drive is off the data is safe. Some people even
get paranoid enough to take it off site in case of fire or theft. I
should be too quick to judge "paranoid". It is a honest practice for a
full backup routine to remove the files away from the computer.

 

[Martin C]

There is another reason for turning the drive off. I also have an external
USB drive to backup images and data. The reason I have this now and turn it
off when not in use is because my old PC PSU died and took out two of the
internal drives with it.
I am assuming that if the same should happen again, my backups will not be
affected. Not sure what would happen to it if the PSU decided to nuke the
drives again with the USB drive powered.

I prefer to err on the side of caution after last time.

Martin

 

[riley3]

Martin, you mention your hard drives were nuked. I have a similar problem
when I cleaned my computer of a virus I lost my E and F CD drives. Can you
give any advice on how to retrieve these drives. I have the standard XP
installed and cannot play my Professional Disc to upgrade since the CD Drives
do not work.

 

[Lem]

Martin, you mention your hard drives were nuked. I have a similar problem
when I cleaned my computer of a virus I lost my E and F CD drives. Can you
give any advice on how to retrieve these drives. I have the standard XP
installed and cannot play my Professional Disc to upgrade since the CD Drives
do not work.

This is not a chat room. You really should start your own thread, with a
meaningful subject line and relevant details in the body, including
which version/service pack of Windows; what the symptoms are, including
the verbatim text of any error messages; what you've tried so far; and
the results.

Passing that, see if this article helps any:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

Or http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_cd_dvd_fix.htm (which
basically is the same thing as above).

--
Lem -- MS-MVP

To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm

 

[John Barnett MVP]

You make a good point Martin; everyone assumes their drives are safe until,
as you found out, that fatal moment when a PSU fails. I agree it is always
wise to be on the safe side.

--

--
John Barnett MVP
Windows XP Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://www.winuser.co.uk
Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org
Web: http://www.silversurfer-guide.com

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Martin C]

Riley3,
Your problem is not really similar to the one I had. In my case (if you
pardon the pun) the Hard Drives were fried by the PSU. Your problem is that
the CDs are not seen on your PC after removing a virus.

Try the following:
I am asuming that your BIOS is actually recognising the CD drives.

Check the power to the CD-ROM drive. See if the activity LED works. Try to
open the tray. If the tray doesn't open the drive does not have power; check
the plug connection to the drive inside the case. If it doesn't work, try
another one. If you can't get power to the drive, it is most likely dead and
needs to be repaired or replaced. If you have intermittent power problems or
problems with other devices as well, the power supply could be a problem.

Check that all of the cables and connectors are fitted snuggly. Replace any
cables that are suspect.

Another thing to try is to go into Device Manager and delete any and all
CD-ROM entries. With luck, Windows will re-detect your CD-Drive at next
bootup.

By the way, a CD drive is a hardware device. As far as I am aware, viruses
cannot damage hardware devices. It is more likely that the virus damaged a
number of system files or the registry. If your virus scanner cannot repair
the problem then see the article on CD Burning in Windows XP at
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm . In that article there is a link to
download a file named CDGONE.zip which will clean out the registry entries
for all your CD drives. Download the file, unzip it, and follow the
instructions. When you reboot the computer it will redetect your CD/DVD
drive and should load the proper drivers and configuration settings. I am
not sure if deleting the CD drives in Device Manager does the same thing or
not.

Hope one of these help.

Martin

Ps: I agree with Lem, you should have started a new post rather than tag
onto this one. It is known as hijacking a thread.