Question about a WD My Passport external hard drive: Hello I recently purchased the above hard drive to back up my images. I have it set up to where the back up is automatic. My...

buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas

Hello
I recently purchased the above hard drive to back up my images. I have it set up to where the back up is automatic. My question is: Should I keep the HD attached to the PC at all times? Or should it be plugged in and out just before I am logging out, let it back up the things that I was working on, then unplug it again?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

buddah17 wrote:

Hello
I recently purchased the above hard drive to back up my images. I have it set up to where the back up is automatic. My question is: Should I keep the HD attached to the PC at all times? Or should it be plugged in and out just before I am logging out, let it back up the things that I was working on, then unplug it again?

I don't generally like things plugged in and turned on when I'm not using them, but my printers, routers, modem, TiVo, etc, are always turned on.

Hard drives are different, though - lots of spinning. I use the non-automatic system of backing up with SyncBack SE. I plug them in when I do a backup and then unplug them. The exception is the drives on my Macs. Since they use Time Machine, which works on its own schedule, they are always connected.

I'll be interested in seeing what the pros here have to say/.

ottopj Loc: Annapolis, MD USA

Mine shuts down after a relatively short period of time when I don't use/access it. I have to open it up with a password again when I want to access it.

Because of this feature, I've never considered plugging and unplugging it.

I'm interested in what other comments you receive.

jstoogy Loc: Central Pa.

I use to do that then I got one of those scams where you have to pay to unlock your computor and lost all my pictures.

buddah17 wrote:

Hello
I recently purchased the above hard drive to back up my images. I have it set up to where the back up is automatic. My question is: Should I keep the HD attached to the PC at all times? Or should it be plugged in and out just before I am logging out, let it back up the things that I was working on, then unplug it again?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

ottopj wrote:

Mine shuts down after a relatively short period of time when I don't use/access it. I have to open it up with a password again when I want to access it.

Because of this feature, I've never considered plugging and unplugging it.

I'm interested in what other comments you receive.

Good to know.

Do you ever have a problem with the computer changing the letter of the drive? That happens to me fairly often. SyncBack is set to backup to drive K, but sometimes drive K turns into drive G, or something else.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I have a whole pile of old external hard drives dating back to the early '90's. Most of them just sit in a pile and get plugged in occasionally but I have two 2Tbyte drives that are permanently attached to my desktop computer. They are powered up all the time but when I don't use them for a while they stop spinning and go into a "wait" mode. When I go to access them it takes a couple of seconds for them to spin up and do their thing.

I have only had one drive fail and that was because it got dropped.

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

What's your goal with the backup? Most folks think about their internal hard drive failing so they make a backup but what about your house/apartment burning down or destroyed by an earthquake or hurricane (very real possibilities depending on where you are in the Bahamas)

Sometime around 2000 there was a virus (love letter I think) that searched all attached hard drives replacing common image file types with multiple copies of a junk file. Leaving your "backup" drive connected at that time would have been a disaster...

buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas

Thanks to your (and others) reply.
I have a Mac as well and it is in Time machine mode.
How can you tell when the Passport drive is "spinning" (as others refer to..)
And my concern with having the drive plugged in all the time, is if something might happen to it as well if the computer crashes, has an electrical surge, or gets a virus... Do I need to be concerned?

jerryc41 wrote:

I don't generally like things plugged in and turne... (show quote)

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

jerryc41 wrote:

....The exception is the drives on my Macs. Since they use Time Machine, which works on its own schedule, they are always connected.

I let my macs backup to my networked Time Capsule and just occasionally plug in a external drive, right click on the Time Machine icon and tell it to backup now - it updates the oldest backup source which is the external. Then I remove the drive after the backup is done.

buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas

OK Thanks.. I think this may be the answer that I'm looking for. I notice that you say that you have to right click on the Time Machine for it to back up? I have never done that, but it seems to back up to the Passport anyway. Is your method due to unplugging the HD and plugging it back in?

sloscheider wrote:

I let my macs backup to my networked Time Capsule and just occasionally plug in a external drive, right click on the Time Machine icon and tell it to backup now - it updates the oldest backup source which is the external. Then I remove the drive after the backup is done.

ottopj Loc: Annapolis, MD USA

jerryc41 wrote:

Good to know.

Do you ever have a problem with the computer changing the letter of the drive? That happens to me fairly often. SyncBack is set to backup to drive K, but sometimes drive K turns into drive G, or something else.

I don't know what you mean by "...changing the letter of the drive." When mine is shut down and I try to access it, a question mark shows up on the desktop icon.

I go to my file explorer on my task bar and go to my CD Drive WD Unlocker, enter my password and off I go.

buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas

This is another GOOD concern of mine that you mention.
BTW Right now I am living in Miami. BUT I am still concerned about what you mentioned regarding weather, because the LEAST bit of wind and rain here, and my electric either blinks, or goes off, the same with the Internet!!!
BTW I live in a very "upscaled" neighborhood, so don't blame it on the hood!

sloscheider wrote:

What's your goal with the backup? Most folks thin... (show quote)

:roll: :roll:

blackest Loc: Ireland

sloscheider wrote:

I let my macs backup to my networked Time Capsule and just occasionally plug in a external drive, right click on the Time Machine icon and tell it to backup now - it updates the oldest backup source which is the external. Then I remove the drive after the backup is done.

multiple back ups :) I use a software raid1 on one mac just for data and pictures so automatically duplicated to two drives. Fairly unlikely that both drives will fail together. second back up is my nas running debian it reads from my computers and creates a backup, highly unlikely to get a virus The CPU is arm, so anything written for x86 intel, amd cpu's is meaningless to it, and read only as far as other computers are concerned.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

buddah17 wrote:

Hello
I recently purchased the above hard drive to back up my images. I have it set up to where the back up is automatic. My question is: Should I keep the HD attached to the PC at all times? Or should it be plugged in and out just before I am logging out, let it back up the things that I was working on, then unplug it again?

Buddha, for what it is worth, I have 2 external drives that stay connected to my desktop. Something gets backed up every time I use my system. It won't hurt them, or your PC, to keep them plugged in, if that's what you want.

I manually start, and check, every backup. When my system's hard drive crashes, chances are good it won't allow me the time to do that backup before it goes south. My point is, I always get nervous for folks when they talk about their "automatic backup". It's certainly convenient, but I encourage you to do something to ensure everything you want backed up is on your backup drive.

Just friendly advice. No criticism intended.

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

jerryc41 wrote:

Do you ever have a problem with the computer changing the letter of the drive? That happens to me fairly often. SyncBack is set to backup to drive K, but sometimes drive K turns into drive G, or something else.

When the drive is connected right click on My Computer (or whatever it's called for the version of Windows you have) and select Manage from the popup menu. In the window that opens look towards the bottom of the left hand panel for Drive Management (may be Disk Management, don't recall exactly). You can select your external drive and assign it a specific drive letter - pick something higher in the alphabet and make sure you haven't assigned some other drive the same letter. If you let Windows decide on it's own the letters can change around every so often.

You could also choose not to assign a drive letter at all and "mount" the drive as a folder in the operating system. Give each drive it's own mount point and your backup software will never have to deal with a changed drive letter.