help needed for external hard drive

espresso

mollytrundle wrote: »

sorry yes my other usb devices work.....
thanx

Sorry never had this problem myself, everything is always instantly recognised, is your XP fully up to date?

nursemolly

update....... i have plugged it into the front usb port and it is now recognised. i have downloaded my music and picture files. what do i have to do before i disconnect it??? i don`t want to lose anything....
many thanx for any help as the instructions that came with it are practically non existant.
thanx
molly
x

espresso

mollytrundle wrote: »

update....... i have plugged it into the front usb port and it is now recognised. i have downloaded my music and picture files. what do i have to do before i disconnect it??? i don`t want to lose anything....
many thanx for any help as the instructions that came with it are practically non existant.
thanx
molly
x

You should have an icon in your system tray down by the clock, Safely Remove Hardware to click on. I doubt if you would lose any data as long as it's not actually writing to the disc at the time though. Sounds like your rear port may not be connected.

nursemolly

hi espresso,
many thanks for all your help today. i really needed it as i am not a techie at all....lol
i didn`t have a safely remove hardware icon in my tray so i just disconnected and unplugged and then reconnected and i still have everything on the exteranl hard drive. so hopefully is that everything i have to do???
i don`t want it connected permanantly, only to transfer things as needed. will this be okay??
cheers
molly

free4440273

^as espresso says, DO click on the SRH icon before unplugging the drive, otherwise you can end up with corrupted data: unlikely, but it does happen. This is especially so with USB Flash drives

Chippy_Minton

If the SRH icon isn't there, see http://ask-leo.com/safely_remove_hardware_where_did_the_icon_go_how_do_i_safely_remove_hardware_without_it.html