external hard drive ?

[Roop-Dogg]

my wife uses an external hard drive on our computer for storing all of her pictures on. can we unhook this drive and take it to someone else's house and hook to their computer and view pictures. obviously, i'm not a computer person. i just want to make sure her pictures are safe if we do that. it looks like its simply unplugging a u.s.b. cable and an electrical cord. (i can handle that )

[Whoaru99]

Should be fine.

USB is (generally) plug and play.

[loosegoose]

It should work fine as long as the operating system on your friends pc is at win 2k or xp. If the external hard drive is the only place your wife has her digital pictures she should really be backing them up if she cherishes them.

[snoozebutton]

I'd get one of those miniature hard drives and transfer just the pics you want to take along. They make them the size of a cigarette lighter and will hold 4 gigs or more.

[opsirc]

my son uses one on his computer for music and photos, we take it and use it on 3-4 other computers with no problems.

[Sandmannd]

I'd get one of those miniature hard drives and transfer just the pics you want to take along. They make them the size of a cigarette lighter and will hold 4 gigs or more.

Actually in the paper today I saw 8 gig thumb drives for under $20. That's a heck of a deal.

To answer your question, yes, you can take external drives from PC to PC and be fine.

[Jakesbuds]

Just an FYI. When youre using one of these and plan on unplugging it, dont just unplug it and run. In the bottom corner of your PC there is a little square deal with a GREEN arrow over it. Click this and Click the white box that says "Safely Remove USB Mass Storage Device" This Ejects the drive safely as I have had many users and myself included just yank the External Hard Drive out and it corrupts files therefore ruining it as well as everything on it. Just something to keep in mind...

[Borch]

I use a lot of the flash/usb drives as well as external hard drives. Most will work between serveral platforms including Macs without issues. I have multiple window and mac platforms that I work with in the schools I work with.

You should be find depending on the computers virus protection,(windows).

[upnorth]

Quote:

This Ejects the drive safely as I have had many users and myself included just yank the External Hard Drive out and it corrupts files therefore ruining it as well as everything on it. Just something to keep in mind...

The biggest thing to take note of is that many MS office files need to be closed or saved elsewhere before you remove the portable drive or they will become unusable/corrupt. We have had more than just a few people do that and you just can't do anything to help them. Gone!

[Roop-Dogg]

jakesbuds-- thanks for the heads up. i did just unplug it and run the first(only) time. after reading your reply, we went thru the "safely remove hardware" icon and clicked on "remove mass storage device" it then told us when it was safe to remove it. (our second time) looks like we got lucky as every thing seemed to be fine after out first unplug and run.

thanks everyone for you answers

[Jakesbuds]

Roop, thats a good habit to get into. If you just unplug without ejecting it odds are it will be OK, but its like Murphy's Law, the one time you dont do it, WHAM its over. Glad my instructions were of some help.

[Roop-Dogg]

yeah-- thanks again. i guess its live and learn. i would never have known that without the input on this forum.

i suppose that also applies when after the pictures are downloaded to the computer from the camera that we should use the remove hardware rather than just unplugging the camera or not????

[WingDing2]

I lost a hard drive... caused by not safely ejecting my mass storage device! A hard lesson learned. Always safely remove hardware!