Hard drive

[JudyL]

I use a laptop computer and I just purchased an Iomega 500mg external hard drive. I thought I could use it to store photo files. I have not installed it as yet. There weren't really intructions on how to use it in the box. Since I use a laptop, I frequently take it with me when I travel. I'm not sure if I can disconnect it or if I must take it with me, too. I know it is hardware so I'm not sure what to do. Can anyone help....thanks so much.

[bnk1953]

I have a Macbook laptop that I backup on an external hard drive (like your Iomega). You can plug it into your computer and move files to it to store. You don't have to carry it around with you when you go places - you just won't have the photos that you stored on your external drive (unless you didn't delete them from your laptop). I'm not sure which type of computer that you are using (I'm assuming a PC) but with Macs it shows up on the desktop. To disconnect the external drive on Macs - just drag the external's icon from the desktop to the trash - then you can unplug the external and your laptap is free to roam where ever.
Hopefully a PC person will come along to explain how the PC's do it.
Just a reminder - it's not "if" your hard drive will fail but "when". It's always good to have backups of files, etc. that you don't want to lose.
~bruce.

[Not4wood]

Bruce is right.

Besides backing up all my shots on the external HD, I also burn them to CD as well.

[JudyL]

Thank you for your help. I use a pc laptop. I guess I will just learn by experience. Thanks, again.

[NickLewis]

Judy,

As Bruce says, you don't need to take the drive with you, but , if you don't, you won't have access to anything that is stored on it.

The easiest way to connect and disconnect it is to do so while it and the laptop are switched off. Windows will be quite happy with that. You can do it while the PC is running, but you have to go through a little routine to achieve it, so why bother unless you need to?

You don't say what version of Windows you're running, but it should just recognise the drive when it powers up with it plugged in. You shouldn't need to do anything special to install it.

But do think about backing your photos up. They are no safer on an external than an internal drive. I wouldn't like you to learn by experience that if you don't backup you lose all your photos.......

Nick

[JudyL]

Thank you so much, Nick.

[lexcell]

Judy, Nick summed it up perfectly! If the drive you purchased is meant for desktop use, you don't want to take it with you...it's too big and too fragile, not meant to be moved around alot. If you need a drive to take with you to store images, then there are some portable drives out there. I have been using the Western Digital drives lately. They work great!

I second Nick's suggestion of having a backup of your images whether it's on another drive or DVDs, etc. It's not a question of if a drive will fail, it's when...and hopefully when it does, you have backup.