disconnecting / reconnecting external hard drive

secret_tramp · 2 January 2018 at 9:30PM

I have recently installed a new external hard drive (Adata HV620) via a USB 3.1 cable (there is no power lead) and am using Windows 7.

I would prefer to have the drive unplugged and stored safely in case my PC ever got compromised and just reconnect it in when I need to transfer files to it.

My questions are therefore:

1. Is it safe/sensible to do this?

2. Do I need to follow the `safe removal`procedure or can I just disconnect it when I have shut down the pc?

3. How do I reconnect it - ie just plug it back in anytime/before switching on pc/or by some other method?

I am obviously a non tech person, but given the recent publicity regarding internet security I would like to have my files saved off site in case of a disaster (I appreciate there is the cloud, but don't really trust that).

Many thanks for any advice or words of wisdom. :T

John_Gray · 2 January 2018 at 9:37PM

Yes
Always follow the Safely Remove Hardware procedure when the PC is powered on. After the PC is powered off, you can just remove the external hard drive.
Yes - either reconnect before or after powering on

And don't rely on a single backup drive - that also can fail!
Maybe have a USB Flash Drive for secondary backup.

A.Penny.Saved · 2 January 2018 at 10:31PM

There is software which can do differential backups which would speed up the backups and take less time so that is worth looking into. You could probably find some freeware that will do it. Search for backup software and when you have a commercial name, search for alternatives on:
http://alternativeto.net/

If you have shutdown windows then the drive can be just disconnected. However leaving it connected in windows for any longer than required for backup is not really a good idea. Therefore once the backups are completed, do the windows Safe removal procedure to flush the drive cache before disconnecting the drive.

A backup of the backup via a large flash drive might be a good idea. 1 and 2 TB USB 2.0 flash drives are fairly inexpensive on ebay. Write speed is around 5-8 MiB/s for the ones I was looking at. They are around £10 to £15.

secret_tramp · 2 January 2018 at 10:37PM

John_Gray wrote: »

Yes

Always follow the Safely Remove Hardware procedure when the PC is powered on. After the PC is powered off, you can just remove the external hard drive.

Yes - either reconnect before or after powering on

And don't rely on a single backup drive - that also can fail!
Maybe have a USB Flash Drive for secondary backup.

Thank you very much for your clear and concise answers. :beer:

I did originally try saving my files to a DVD and a flash drive but both methods were taking an impossibly long time to transfer my (10,000+ mainly MS Word) files. Maybe I need another of these things, one to stay connected to the PC and the other to be kept in the safe.

secret_tramp · 2 January 2018 at 10:46PM

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

There is software which can do differential backups which would speed up the backups and take less time so that is worth looking into. You could probably find some freeware that will do it. Search for backup software and when you have a commercial name, search for alternatives on:
http://alternativeto.net/

I did previously have a different external hard drive and had difficulties with adding files to it (mainly through my lack of expertise), but I did try some software called Synctoy, which resulted in me transferring the files from the external drive to my PC (and almost losing all my latest files) rather than the other way round. A terrifying experience until they got recovered from the trash folder!

agrinnall · 2 January 2018 at 10:50PM

I've never bothered to keep external drives connected full time, mainly because I've only had laptops for the last 10 years but even when I had a desktop I didn't do it. As suggested, back up to at least 2 sources, and if you can, keep one of them off site so if something catastrophic happens (such as a house fire) you still have access to your data - I keep a drive in my detatched garage.

I'd agree in general with the safe removal method, but I have one drive that sometimes thinks it's not finished writing even though it has and I just have to pull the plug, it's never yet caused me a problem but I accept that one day it might.

debitcardmayhem · 2 January 2018 at 11:03PM

Fair advice above but 1 backup drive/location is not ideal for irreplaceable data, and leaving it attached is far from ideal, just my take on things

Peter999_2 · 2 January 2018 at 11:06PM

[QUOTE=John_Gray;73651224 2. Always follow the Safely Remove Hardware procedure when the PC is powered on. After the PC is powered off, you can just remove the external hard drive.[/QUOTE]

You don't need to use the "safely remove hardware" anymore these days. By default, USB drives are set to disable write caching therefore you can just unplug the device without using the "safely remove hardware" icon.

emptybox · 3 January 2018 at 1:14AM

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

A backup of the backup via a large flash drive might be a good idea. 1 and 2 TB USB 2.0 flash drives are fairly inexpensive on ebay. Write speed is around 5-8 MiB/s for the ones I was looking at. They are around £10 to £15.

I would be very wary of buying cheap high capacity flash drives from Ebay (or even Amazon sellers). They can often be fakes.
Stick to recognised brands.

Tom99 · 3 January 2018 at 6:03AM

If you use a 'mirror' option rather than 'back up' then it only copies over the files you have changed or are new. My weekly back up to a flash drive, using SyncBack, usually take less the 1 minute.

unforeseen · 3 January 2018 at 7:04AM

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

There is software which can do differential backups which would speed up the backups and take less time so that is worth looking into. You could probably find some freeware that will do it. Search for backup software and when you have a commercial name, search for alternatives on:
http://alternativeto.net/

If you have shutdown windows then the drive can be just disconnected. However leaving it connected in windows for any longer than required for backup is not really a good idea. Therefore once the backups are completed, do the windows Safe removal procedure to flush the drive cache before disconnecting the drive.

A backup of the backup via a large flash drive might be a good idea. 1 and 2 TB USB 2.0 flash drives are fairly inexpensive on ebay. Write speed is around 5-8 MiB/s for the ones I was looking at. They are around £10 to £15.

1 or 2 TB flash drive for £10? Dream on. That size will cost in the region of £1k even on eBay

disconnecting / reconnecting external hard drive

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free