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September 17th, 2011 09:00
External Hard Drive
Repost from the wrong forum :emotion-10:
Realizing my computer is over three years and contains lot of info and files, I picked up a WD "My Passport" drive capable of holding 320 GB...more than enough for a few years. Want to use this as a backup, and I think it is also capable of encryption...a handy feature if I have to scrap the drives. My only previous experience having been with flash drives I have been wondering how to proceed with this thing. It seems to have installed OK as shows up as drive "J" in My Computer and when I click on "Send To". I tested it to see if I could transfer a picture and a video, and that seemed to work fine. But the unit seems capable of a lot more than that. I was wondering if anyone on these forums has had experience with these particular drives and advise me on how best to proceed so I won't mess up the installation.
Clicking on the drive in My Computer brings up some various folders:
One called "Extras" brings up a WD Device driver, an Adobe Reader download, and VCVDVersion.xml Have no idea so won't touch these.
A "System Volume Information" which appears empty and also Access Denied
A 75 page users manual which contains a lot of stuff which I have started to study.
One called WC SmartWare which contains what appear to be a lot of setup files among others and a welcome animation.
Then a couple of applications....WD Quicker Formatter.exe....and WD SmartWare.exe.. After reading all the way through the manual I will probably have a good idea of how to proceed, but a few starter tips from persons familiar with this product would be much appreciated. Hopefully I posted this in the proper forum.
Mary G
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September 17th, 2011 11:00
It's really just Plug and Play. You use is the same as an internal drive. Use it when you run Backup, store files on it etc. You can reformat it, change the file system--anything you want. I have the same model in the 500gb version. Even that size is really a little small for today's huge TB hard drives. WD support site has lots more info. If you have Windows 7--use Backup and Restore to make a complete System Image and store it on the external drive along with your regular backups. Then make a System Repair cd to use as a boot disk in case of disaster. It will let you boot and restore the system image from the external drive. Even the Factory Restore hidden partition will be included in the System Image. Update the image whenever you make big changes.
dalem29
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September 17th, 2011 12:00
Thanks Mary:
This computer is an XPS 420 with Vista and IE9 SP2. Will that also work as far as making the System Image. And since the the connecting cord is not very long, do you think I could let the drive rest in the depression on the top of the computer case without any interference problems...which iswhere I now throw my keys and store my glasses so I can find them again. :emotion-1:
dalem29
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September 21st, 2011 06:00
Have been so busy I have not had time to explore it's various features, but yesterday I had BSOD that mentioned APC_Index Mismatch...also down the page was a reference to Sandbox.sys address 911A3020 base at 91147000 datestamp 4d87 525b. Have no idea if this related to the install of this device. Everything seems OK after it repaired itself.