Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with externaldrive

Reinstall Windows dealing with NTFS permissions

chrisch — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:58:21 -0800

I'm a few weeks away from rebuilding my PC with Windows 7 and need help understanding how to deal with NTFS permissions. I'm a few weeks away from rebuilding my PC with Windows 7. I'm currently using the release candidate of Windows 7 with the following drive configuration:

C:\ - Windows and applications (some data)
D:\ - data drive (including "D:\My Documents\")
Q:\ - external backup drive (Drobo)

All drives are formatted with NTFS and backups of selected directories to Q:\ are done with rsync. I've noticed that some directories on Q:\ are not accessible by the Guest account, meaning that permissions are not consistent on that drive. The machine isn't on a domain.

My plan is to wipe C:\ and reinstall Windows, and leave D:\ and Q:\ alone. My questions are:

- How do I reinstall and prevent ugly situations with NTFS file permissions (i.e., permission denied)?
- Is there a best practices guide for syncing to my backup drive to ease future accessibility from another computer?

Many thanks!

Meet the new drive, same as the old drive

pdb — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:24:35 -0800

Can I fool iTunes into thinking my library is on the same drive as it was before, even though it's not? I have my iTunes library on a 250G external hard drive. It's almost full, so I went out and bought a 2TB drive. Will the following method of moving music work?

1. Copy all the files from my existing external drive to the new drive
2. Disconnect my existing drive
3. Rename the new drive to the same name as my old drive
4. Start up iTunes
5. Rock

If I'm going from one external to a second, can I fool iTunes, or should I go through the same process as I did before? It seems like if I name the new HD the same as my old one, it should work, but it's entirely possible that I am missing something.

I'm on a Mac (OS X 10.5.7) if that makes a difference. And I'm not looking to switch away from iTunes so please don't recommend that as a solution. Thanks.

eSATA vs. USB ext. hard drive question

jingo74 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:34:43 -0800

I need to purchase another external hard drive to store my ITunes library and other media files. Currently I store my media files on a second internal drive. I cannot decide if it's worth it to purchase a drive that uses a eSATA connection and to install an eSATA card in my 4-year old Dell. Would having an eSATA connection as opposed to USB 2.0 make a difference when it comes to syncing my IPod?

External USB Hard Drive For Xbox 360

turgid dahlia — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:20:58 -0800

I need an external USB hard drive that will work on my Xbox 360. Ohai! So listen, I have an Xbox 360, which is great. I also have a 2GB thumbdrive/memory stick (whatever you want to call it) that I sometimes enjoy putting DivX movies or TV shows on in order to watch them on the aforementioned Xbox 360. I also like to listen to MP3s on my Xbox 360. I think these are all good healthy natural things, but I would like to not have to be constantly deleting stuff from the thumbdrive in order to make room to put other stuff on there. So, basically, I need a larger drive.

I know you can get fairly big thumbdrives these days, and they are relatively inexpensive, but I'd much prefer an external HDD (say, 100GB or more), because those are handy for plenty of things. I already have a 100GB Maxtor OneTouch but the problem is, it simply doesn't work on the Xbox. The 360 just plain refuses to recognise it. So I'm wondering if this is going to be the case with any other external USB HDD I happen to run out and purchase. Sandisk 2GB Titanium = good, Maxtor 100GB OneTouch = bad.

Could this be because the Maxtor has an external power supply? If I was to get a plain old USB-powered external HDD, would I have more luck? I'd love to hear from other Xbox 360 owners about which external HDDs, if any, work flawlessly on their 360's. Thanks in advance!

[iTunesFilter] Want to fill 160 Gb iPod, but only has tiny teensy hard-drive

XiBe — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:01:17 -0800

How to handle a 160 Gb iPod when the computer only has 30 free Gb? My girlfriend asked for a 160 Gb iPod for her birthday, and I offered her. She wanted a bug iPod because she wanted to have all of her music in there - her older 4 Gb iPod Nano wasn't enough, she constantly had to renew its content.

Thing is, she handles iTunes and therefore her music from her old laptop, where she just doesn't have the disk space to fill up her new iPod. The issue here would be that iTunes requires that you have all your music in it, before you can put in the iPod - and that you then keep the music in iTunes. Given her drive space, she just can't do this.

She does have an external drive, and I advised her to put all of her music in there, and let iTunes handle her music from there, but she doesn't really want to carry around her ex-drive when on vacation, for instance.

Does anyone around you had to deal with this kind of situation? Any advice could be pretty useful...

Thanks a lot.

Help with booting external drive -- it's encrypted, getting BSOD after Windows starts

powpow — Sat, 12 May 2007 08:46:49 -0800

Help with booting external drive -- it's encrypted, getting BSOD after Windows starts. It "kind-of" boots, then crashes. Drive is fully encrypted but I have password and can get to Windows. Is there a way to get data off? Is there a way, after pre-boot authentication, to just use DOS or something? Maybe network it and copy files? Thanks for any ideas, I'm fresh out.

SUMMARY:
- Hard drive has data I want. It "kind-of" boots, then crashes.
- XP Pro SP2
- Drive is fully encrypted but I have password and can get to Windows

- Is there a way to get the data off?
- Is there a way, after pre-boot authentication, to just use DOS or something? Maybe network it and copy files?

THE DETAILS:

I've got a hard drive from my old laptop that I'd like to get data from. The old laptop won't power up (been having problems with that, knew it was coming, and had almost everything backed up anyway... Somehow electricity ain't making it to the battery/system anymore). Anyway, the Hard Drive shouldn't be fried -- it just has no power.

I've stuck the hard drive into an external enclosure and tried booting from that. I've also stuck it in a different laptop, with the same results as below. The OS is XP Pro SP2.

The drive happens to have Pre-Boot Authentication (meaning you can't get to the Operating System) via SafeGuard Easy. No problem there, I can enter the password and it starts booting.

Then I get the old "Windows didn't start normally last time, do you want to Start in Safe Mode.... Start windows normally ... Last known good configuration...".

The "Last Known Good" option seems to be the best. However, shortly after the Windows logo appears I get a quick flash of BSOD (blue screen of death, if you didn't already know). Then the system reboots, rinse, repeat.

I've tried different power cords to revive the old laptop, and I know the cords work from using them on other systems. I've also taken it apart and fiddled with where you plug the power cord in (it used to work to jiggle the cord...) so it now looks like a science project. I've got nothing against fiddling more if it might help to have the hard drive back where it came from for booting...

Thanks for reading!

How to copy mp3s from one Hard drive to an another?

toocan — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:57:16 -0800

How can i scan an internal Hard disk for mp3s and and copy them to an External Hard disk automatically ? I want to scan an internal Hard disk for mp3s and copy them all to an external Hard disk. The problem is the source drive has identical mp3s in different folder location so a simple windows search then copy and paste fails.

Is there a tool that will enable me to copy all mp3s from one drive to another either excluding duplicates or renaming ? or possibly a step further a tool that will scan, copy and do some basic folder organisation ( im not to bothered about the destination drive being organised i can do this manually at a later time )

help / suggestions appreciated

Big downloads on firewire external disks?

PenguinBukkake — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 12:04:02 -0800

OK, let's say I'd like to download this thing, but it's a 56 GB thing (well, it's a bunch of things, let's say, for educational purposes only, .par and .rar files). My hard disk is only 30 GB (about 11 GB of currently free space). But: I have a 250GB external drive (firewire) that I sometimes use to store stuff. Can I download the big file (it'll take, I guess, an entire day) straight on the external drive? Or is my Mac (G4) going to blow up for some reason? thanks!!!

I don't wanna lose all my information.

Ash3000 — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 09:32:55 -0800

Please don't let me lose all of my phone numbers, datebook, project filing, etc... (You need not be treo-conversant to answer this, but it might help a little.) So my treo 600 dies. Long story.

Then, literally the next day, the motherboard on my laptop (dell inspiron 5100) is fried. (And I'm in rural Missouri to record a podcast, but that's neither here nor there.)

A week later, I'm able to transfer to a new laptop, a Toshiba Satellite, and I get a drive-caddy to retrieve the hard-drive of the old laptop, including the handspring files. I purchase a new treo 650, and install the CD, thinking that I'll just be able to simply import the old addresses, etc.

There's a problem. Not only is the format not correct (the old address, dates, etc. are all .dat files and I need .dba or .vcs files), but, even though the file is on an external drive, the old Palm program, when I try to open it, begins with the program screen of the new palm one software, then says "Error: Invalid Configration. Terminating the Palm Desktop."

I really, REALLY don't want to lose all of my old addresses and phone numbers and project filing...what do I do now?

External drives recognized, but not mounting

cg1 — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 07:54:46 -0800

My 2 external hard drives (that I use with my Powerbook G4), which worked fine last week, are recognized, and Disk Utility *says* they're mounting, but they do not appear on my desktop. I cannot access the files or copy new items. I have 3 external hard drives--1 using Firewire (Maxtor Onetouch II) and 2 (both Western Digital) using USB 2.0. I have a PowerBook G4 and Run OSX v10.4.6

I recently moved and the 2 USB drives, which used to work fine, now will not mount. When I connect them to the machine, they don't pop up. When I unplug them, it gives me the shpiel about having just unplugged a device without unmounting...?

I went into Disk Utility and both appear as being recognized (the drive itself appears as the orange square with a squiggle), but the volume directory WITHIN the drives don't appear as the orange thing; they appear as white squares. I tried verifying both the the drives themselves and the volume directories within each; they verify fine. When I hit "Repair Disk" it tells me that they don't require repairing.

I have tried other USB devices into the ports on my machine and they work fine. And my Firewire Maxtor external drive works fine.

I can't get to my files and I'm totally baffled. Any help would be *greatly* appreciated.

How to partition an external hard drive for use with OS X and Windows, and booting OS X too?

evariste — Fri, 12 May 2006 00:10:35 -0800

I need help using my external USB hard drive with Mac OS X, and there's more inside. You see, I have this 200GB USB hard drive, currently formatted as a single FAT32 partition. I'd been using it with my Windows XP desktop. Now I have a MacBook Pro and I need help figuring this out. The MacBook is named Olivia and the Windows machine is named Snowball. The FAT32 volume is named Torquemada.

Is there some partitioning scheme that will let me have Torquemada in "GUID partition table" mode* so I can have a bootable OS X image on 80 GB of it, and at the same time have the other 120 GB be FAT32, and therefore useful for moving files between Olivia and Snowball? Or does the one preclude coexistence with the other?

If I have my OS X install DVDs, and I have a Torquemada formatted to boot OS X, how do I actually get a bootable OS X on there? Once that's in place, say I wanted to boot Olivia off Torquemada instead of her internal drive, what key do I hold down to tell her so?

*whatever that means.

Randomly copy files to an external drive

Mick — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 10:59:31 -0800

How can I randomly copy files to an external drive? We've got a plasma screen TV in the lobby at our office that can display a slide show from a memory card. I also have a large collection of portfolio pieces from our building's tenants. I'd like to rotate out a random sampling every week or so.

How can I randomly pull x# of files onto an SD memory card I've got connected to my WindowsXP machine?

I need help unbloating an external drive

FlamingBore — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 00:04:43 -0800

Tag&Rename bloated my external drive and now I can't access the drive. Is there an easier/faster way to get my files off the drive? Per numerous suggestions here on the green I downloaded and started using Tag&Rename to clean up tags and grab album art on the 12k MP3 tracks, which I store on my 160GB LaCie external drive. I was merrily chugging along when it started throwing errors. Something to the effect of "out of space". Seemed odd because those tracks and the other files on that drive only took up about 70gb of space.

I've since found out from an FAQ on the Tag&Rename website that there is a known issue with the rewriting of files on systems that have System Restore enabled, as I did.

So now my drive is inaccessible. From using a file recovery tool I can see the files are still there. So I've started using some tools (DriveRescue, which crapped out and now only lets me pull one file at a time; and FileRecovery, which lets me pull more, but craps out after a while too) to pull over files onto another external drive.

Might there be another way to go about this? The LaCie shows up as a volume, but is not fully recognized. If I try to open it I get "The disk in drive E: is not formatted. Do you want to format now?" Is it possible that if I was somehow able to delete a file from the drive I might get WinXP to fully recognize the drive? If so, how might I go about deleting a file?

If that's not likely or wicked difficult to do, are there faster or more reliable (in terms of selecting a chunk and letting them run) ways to move files from the LaCie to the new drive?

Thanks in advance!

LaCie external drive not responding

FlamingBore — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 06:50:05 -0800

How can I access a non-responding folder on my LaCie 160GB external USB hard drive? I have approximately 60gbs of files on this drive. I can access and work with every other folder on the drive except the one that is currently holding my ~45gbs of mp3 files. I can "open" the folder but the files never display and the folder and drive stop responding. I can then click the folder closed and the "end program" dialog box will appear and I close it that way. This happened once before and I cannot recall how I "fixed" it. Anyone else have this or similar problem, and ideally a solution?

If it matters I'm on Windows XP.

How to make an external 5.25" floppy drive?

-harlequin- — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 12:24:56 -0800

Does anyone know (or can think of) any way to make an external 5.25" floppy drive? (preferably USB or wireless, for use with PC/Windows systems). I'm quite at home with a soldering iron, but I don't know much about what is compatible with these old drives.

I'm not after "make an extension of the PC internal floppy cable" answers, as I'm looking to make an external drive that can be plugged into a computer or laptop that has no special hardware, and without the use of a screwdriver.
Likewise, "put a miniature pc with a wireless card in the external enclosure with the drive" is a useful solution if you know of any uber-miniature dirt-cheap PCs to do it with, but currently I don't. (Let me know if you do :-))

Does anyone know if the adaptor inside a USB external 3.5" floppy drive would work if swapped out with a 5.25" drive? (I'm guessing the adaptor chip wouldn't have 5.25 detection or specs, but it seems the closest thing to a chance)

Is there anything like the IDE-to-USB adaptors that would work for floppy drives?

Any other ideas?

Thanks