External Hard Drive Questions

[haidleym]

I have just installed an external hard drive on my computer (for backing up my files) and my question is, is this new drive susceptible to security issues? Would it be infected if a virus struck my computer? Should I keep it turned off until I need it? Thanks.

 

[NoCalAdmin]

any drive on can receive a virus. Yes leave it off. And yes, include it on your routine virus scans.

 

[haidleym]

thanks for the advise

 

[micker377]

Yes, run virus scans, but don't bother to defrag. Most time a "backup" program will keep it in contiguous blocks. This doesn't apply if you are backing up files like a giant floppy, this will need defragging.

 

[BMCULL]

I have taken an old seagate 20G ide HDD and connected externally using a BENQ external CDRW housing. After connecting every thing up and connecting to my computer, it tells me that the device is unrecognised/malfunctioned. Yet when i connect the HDD directly to my computer as a salve drive, it works fine.

Help!

 

[wahnula]

BMCULL, welcome to the board. For future reference you should start a new post with a new problem. My first guess would be the jumper configuration is wrong. Please start a new thread to discuss, go to forum751 and scroll down, insert your text there.

Tony