--- Fred Frederick <[email protected]> wrote: > On 12/6/06, K Jones <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Sounds like a problem with the external drive -- Windows tried to > write > > to the external drive "F:" and it wasn't ready or on line. Had you > > disconnected or powered off the external drive before going through > the > > Windows "Safely remove..." routine? > > and > What kind of help do you need for your external drive? Your > questions > about that may be related to this error message. > > Dear Kraig: > > I did not follow a safely remove routine. I did not see instructions > to do > so, but my vision is bad so could have missed it. Please tell me what > to > look for when backup is finished? If you're using "removable storage" -- which could be an external USB hard drive or a USB flash drive ("thumb drive") -- when it's plugged in there will be an icon next to the Clock in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. The icon looks like a green arrow over a card(?), and the tag when you move the mouse over it says "Safely Remove Hardware". If you're going to unplug your external USB drive, you should click on the icon and "Safely remove..." or "Stop..." the drive. All this does is notify Windows that you're going to disconnect the drive and give Windows time to finish any transfers that are in progress. Anyway, that's what came to mind when I saw that error message. If you unplugged the external Maxtor drive before the data transfer was complete you might get a message like that, and some data could have been lost. Try running the backup again, and "Safely remove" the drive before you unplug it. There could be other reasons for this error message, too. So if you do the "Safely remove,,," bit and still have problems, let us know. > > The problem I have with the Maxtor is knowing what type of backup to > do. It > seems there are two choices: one requires a floppy disk, the other > does not. What's the name of the backup software you're using? The various backup programs work in so many different ways it's hard to say what your choices (floppy/no floppy) mean. I'm guessing that the "floppy" choice creates a bootable floppy that you can use to start up your system in the event of a hard disk crash. > > 2. does that hard drive get too full? When should I delete previous > backups? That's hard to say. Depends on the backup software & options that you're using, and the capacity of the hard disk. If you're backing up an "image" (or "ghost") of your whole primary drive, that's going to take a lot of space; you may be able to keep only one copy at a time. If you're backing up selected data only, an external hard drive will hold a lot of that. When you delete previous backups again depends on what your backup plan is, and what hardware you have. If you're backing up a whole drive and the external drive has room for only one copy -- that's risky. You have to erase the backup to make room for the next one. Until that's complete, you don't have any backup. It's better if your external drive is big enough for at least two copies -- then you overwrite the oldest one. Kraig ____________________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Music Unlimited Access over 1 million songs. http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited

On 12/7/06, K Jones <[email protected]> wrote: K Jones: Your reply of 7 December was lengthy and I do not know how to condense the post for sending again, so I am saying thank you for taking the time to address my problem(s) with the Maxtor hard drive. My son-in-law installed it, told me basically to do regular backups and left. Because of vision problems I cannot read small print such as in the manual for the hard drive. Since I am able with my devices to read information on the computer (most of the time) I can follow the instructions you provided. I will do so and should another error message such as the previous M:\$mft occur, I will again contact you. Thank you so much for taking time to advise. Fred, Sr.