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Questions tagged [external-drive]

76 questions
193
votes
9 answers

Why should I use exFAT over NTFS on removable media?

So, basically I always format my removable mass storage devices as NTFS by default, but someone told me I was better off using exFAT. Now I've been looking around google, but can't find any good reasons why I should. Is there anything that exFAT…
Pylsa
  • 31,383
10
votes
5 answers

Can storing my HDDs airtight damage them in anyway?

I have lost many electronics that I keep unused for a long time before due to the near sea (high humidity area) area that I live in. I learned this the hard way, so in order to protect hard drives unused for long periods that I use as back up, I…
Jim Arnold
  • 201
9
votes
4 answers

USB 2.0 and USB 3.0, how can you tell the difference?

I know the speeds would obviously be a key factor, but is there any spot on way to tell if a device is USB 2.0 or 3.0 such as a USB flash drive?
user88311
  • 1,674
8
votes
1 answer

How to access files stored on tape drive?

Helping a friend with accessing an old backup file (circa 2000) of some ProTools sessions provided by a recording studio on DAT-style data tapes. He has the tapes, and a Seagate STD 124000N SCSI tape drive which accepts them. After sorting out a…
Derek Hogue
  • 181
6
votes
2 answers

Would an external DVD drive work with an LCD TV?

I want to buy an external DVD drive, but I also want to use it to play videos on an LCD TV. Is this possible? Would the TV be able to interact with the drive over the USB port? Or is a DVD player a must in such a case?
Hosam Aly
  • 285
6
votes
1 answer

windows VM extreamly slow when running from external USB3.0 SSD compared to a Linux VM and a USB3.0 HDD

Long Info: I'm trying to run a windows virtualbox vmdk from a USB 3.0 external SSD. The system I use is Arch Linux which is also installed on this external SSD. The VM runs fine if I load it from the internal SSD (while using the System on the…
MADforFUNandHappy
  • 637
4
votes
1 answer

How do I emulate a "fake" external USB drive?

My goal is to create a disk partition that my Windows computer recognises as a removable device, but is actually a virtual hard disk.
Josh Roberts
  • 121
3
votes
2 answers

Can I play Blu-ray movies from an external drive?

I have a media center behind my TV and a DVD drive in an external enclosure (connected via USB) where I can reach it. I'd like to put a Blu-ray drive in there instead, but I'm concerned that it won't play the movies (maybe it's not HDCP compliant?).…
SqlRyan
  • 1,123
2
votes
1 answer

Restoring old documents found by search engine Everything from $recycle.bin of hard drive D of another PC

I'm trying to recover some old files whose status I do not quite understand. Back in ~2006, I accidently deleted some essential Word documents from my then D:\ -hard drive (Windows ME). Some years later, all old then D:-data got copied onto the…
phil294
  • 349
  • 4
  • 14
2
votes
1 answer

Virus on DVD-writer

A fried of mine has a notebook without a DVD writer and wants to borrow my external DVD/CD writer. Is it possible that the DVD writer gets a virus or malware etc. if my fried is using it and his notebook has a virus? The DVD writer is connected to…
user312744
  • 21
  • 2
2
votes
1 answer

How to protect files/folders from being copied/moved/deleted/cut on Windows

I need to share data on an external drive that will be handed over to someone else, and I would like to achieve the following: protect all the files and folders from being copied/moved/deleted/cut on windows system files are browsable and media…
Sean Lee
  • 129
  • 1
  • 4
2
votes
3 answers

External DVD writer is not supported by my laptop on startup

I purchased a new external Samsung DVD writer which is not being detected on startup by my Dell Inspiron laptop. However, if I attach it to a different Dell model, a Sony laptop, and my desktop machine it works fine. I've tried updating the BIOS of…
Amit Kumar Gupta
  • 397
2
votes
1 answer

Mount External Hard Drive on Ubuntu 10.04 Across Network

I'm running Ubuntu 10.04 on two separate machines on a network (Ubuntu machine A and B). I am running some tests with temp files for some other software, installed on Ubuntu machine A. The software uses a temp directory in /tmp//temp_dir.…
nicorellius
  • 6,815
2
votes
0 answers

Why are all my external drives experiencing errors?

Problem Message "There's a problem with this drive. Scan the drive now and fix it" after connecting external storage. (Often, but not always) Scanning: After clicking on the above-mentioned message balloon, "Error checking (drive name)" appears…
Ludo
  • 125
2
votes
2 answers

How to recover file system access after losing non-mirrored MFT records?

After I unplugged my external drive after a phony safe removal on Ubuntu, two sectors are destroyed. The important sector contained records 4 to 7 (which is $AttrDef, $ (root), $Bitmap and $Boot) of the NTFS MFT. The sector now gives an IO error and…
ChrisoLosoph
  • 121
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