How do I use my portable Hard drive

[BeeCeeBee]

:o There is no urgency to this question but just an attempt to fill one the many gaps in my personal knowledge base.

 

Prior to reformatting my laptop I purchased a small WD portable hard drive (usb) with the sole intent of using it as a large flashdrive. Since my computer has a 60G capacity and it was only half full at most I figured a 160G portable was almost a monster.

 

Anyhow I successfully used it for that purpose and now use it if I am going to download anything at all. I even downloaded the malware you suggest and scanned THEM before installing. I don't know if that is making me any safer?

 

The WD came with a manual that said little and meant nothing to me. Calling it a manual is stretching it. The pdf manual included was exactly the same. Since the drive contained a number of related files that had nothing to do with my intended use I just created a folder for them and put them out of the way.

 

My main question is am I missing something that is going to make my life easier, safer or more fun by not having any idea what else to do with this thing. AND If I do not need to bother with it how can I stop it from autorunning itself whenever I plug it in?

 

Should I keep the included software or just delete it?

 

Thank for any insight you can impart.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Barry

 

What are you on about mate, it's an external hard disk drive designed to be used as storage space, what else do you want to do with it?

 

What other files are on it, what is auto running?

[BeeCeeBee]

I have no idea except that it has all this software in it WD setup files WD SYNC set up, JStart etc. When I plug it in the little flashlight on my screen searches through it and then asks me what I want to do. Personally I am just as happy to have it sit there and shut up.

 

Can I just dump all that stuff??

 

And is it safer to download programs to it for scanning first or is that accomplishing nothing?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

How much of your stuff is on there?

[BeeCeeBee]

All that is on it of mine are documents, photos and a lot of old music. Basically it is now just being used to backup and store files. There is also a folder where i put all the .exe for what I have installed since the restart.

[BeeCeeBee]

PS All of my personal files have been move over to the laptop.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Can you do me a screen shot like the one you were looking at earlier please Barry.

 

The Disk Management one.

[BeeCeeBee]

Bob I think you have me confused with someone else. I don't think I ever saw or gave you a disc management screenshot and am not sure what you want me to do ot how to do it.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

I watch everything that goes on in this forum Barry trust me.

 

You were looking at this post earlier would you agree?

 

http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/hard-drives-pen-flash-and-usb/3942-my-hard-drive-nearly-full.html

 

Right click My Computer and then choose Manage

 

Click the + on Storage to open it if not already open then click Disk Management.

 

Then hit the PrtSc or Print Screen button, open Paint (a generic windows program) and hit Ctrl + V

 

Save the image as .jpeg and post that image back here.

[BeeCeeBee]

OK right after dinner BUT if you think that I remember everything I saw while looking around all I can say to you is "wait a few years."

[Guest Wolfeymole]

I'm not saying you do Barry I'm just saying I do :)

 

I have only 14 years to go until I match your age and I think I still be ok.

[BeeCeeBee]

OK this is the second time I am trying this.

 

I dont know what I am doing wrong but it comes out far to big for this box.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

That shot shows an internal hard drive as Disk 1 Barry not an external one.

 

External ones would be shown as Removable Media.

 

What exactly is going on here mate?

[BeeCeeBee]

Bob it is me that does not know what is going on. The screenshot that I gave you shows 3 disks Disc 0 is my internal hardrive, Disk 1 the E drive called MyPasspot is the Portable hardrive. 149.05 GB fat 32 and it is listed as healthy. Other than the empty D drive I do not anything else. All I asked is whether I need the additional software loaded on that disk. It just seems that you are trying to catch me out on something and I dont know why.

 

By the way the drive is a WD Passport and I assume it names itself.

[BeeCeeBee]

I just did a little test of my own. I opened my computer and plugged in a flashdrive and it did show under devices with removable storage. I then removed it and plugged the WD portable into the same USB port and it did show up under hard disk drives.

 

I let it load itself (autoplay) and it suggested Media Player. So I said OK and it played "A Horse with no Name"."I assume it would pay my whole music library since it kept adding it to the playlist.

 

All I want is a place to keep my old files safely like a big flah drive. I only asked this question because I thought with all the extra software I might be missing something useful. My intitial reaction was to jsut delete it all. By the way the safely remove hardware program certain recognises it as removable storage.

 

Frankly my computer is working fine and as long as it isn't doing any harm I don't care what it wants to call itself. My uneducated opinion is that this software is making it or my laptop to think it is something else.

 

That is the full extent of what is going on here!!!

[RandyL]

If you want to turn off Autoplay in XP for that drive I think you need to right click the drive then click properties and you should see where to turn it off.

 

As for the software that came on the drive they are probably just .exe files that you can choose to install and use or not. I usually just keep them on a drive or CD in case I ever feel like playing around with them but so far I never have.

 

Have a read about WD Sync.

[BeeCeeBee]

OK Thanks

[Dalo Harkin]

Also on that screen shot that you posted - it is showing the drive as FAT32 and not NTFS.

when you say it asks for media player - when you plug it in it should bring an autoplay option up - you can select take no action and there is a little box bottom left that says - do not ask me this again - tick that and then that box should never show again

[BeeCeeBee]

Thank you. I must have missed the little box before. I did follow Randy's advice for each kind of file listed and said take no action. I noice that now autoplay no longer runs when I connect the drive although I looked and it still lists it as a Hard Disk and not removable storage under "my Computer." Since no-one has said this is anyhting but a quirk I assume that is unimportant.

I do not know the difference between a FAT32 and a NTFS. Do I need to? When I use the little remove hardware icon it show as mass storage and external USB device.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

NTFS (New Technology File System) is the better one Barry, have a read of this;

 

Choosing Between File Systems

[BeeCeeBee]

I will read this evening and hopefully learn something new. Since this drive is only attached for a few minutes on days when I want to back up new corresponence etc. And since it worked for a major problem I assume it is fine just to leave it as is. Right??

[Guest Wolfeymole]

I'd leave it plugged in all the time Barry, does it have it's own power supply or is it just powered via USB?

[BeeCeeBee]

It is just USB. From what I gather it is probably made a few years ago since most references to it are from a number of years back. This is a laptop so I cant plug it in all the time. It is not even with me now. Am I wrong in thinking that if it is detached my data is better protected??

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Well I never heard of an external drive being zapped by any surges on the mainboard but there's always a first time I suppose.

 

But at the end of the day an external drive is always a better medium to store on rather than an internal one.

[RandyL]

And as far as any malware getting on that's the whole point of a seperate drive or a partitioned drive. Malware can only infect the drive that has an operating system on it.

 

Of course if you have infected backup files on the other drive and you run them (which means you are doing so from the drive that contains the OS) then you could infect the main drive.