USB Storage Device

[cx]

Y'all remember way back yesterday when we were tryin' to get Davestone's OE files transfered to his new computer?

And remember I sent him a link to a place tole him how to do it?

And how I tole him I use that method and it works fine?

Well, I decided to back up my OE per that method and transfer to my laptop this very day. And I backed it up just fine. Then I tried to copy it to a Verbatim 1Gig USB storage thingee and it wouldn't go. Kept stopping and giving me some lame excuses why it couldn't transfer this file or that file: Cannot find file; Cannot copy I/O device error; The parameter is incorrect; File or directory is corrupted or unreadable; etc.

Tried to make a folder in the USB device and download the files from the hard drive directly. Same problem.

Made a folder on another hard drive in same computer and downloaded to that just fine.

I've used this USB thingee for transferring photos and maps and lots of other doccuments from same desktop, laptop, other peoples computers, etc. No problems.

Are these devices, like some old people known to me, easily confused by email data or some such?

[Dog paws]

Well, this old person who has been easily confused by same such emails recently bought a WD portable hard drive. Haven't had a lick of problems with it...yet.
Maybe we could just be witnessing operator error.

[cx]

Oh, well, that was really helpful, Michael. Operator error, indeed.

Hell, it ain't got but two ends and only one of'em will fit inna USB hole.

But seriously, I used the thing quite a bit last owling season between at least five different computers and it ranked as one of the most user-friendly pieces of computer hardware I've ever owned. No doo-doo, Michael, it's kinda like a stainless steel bowling ball, you really can't screw it up.

I have now successfully copied the same data from my desktop computer to my laptop on a CD and it worked fine. Gotta be something in this USB thingy.

Any eye-dees? These things get corrupted easily? Any way to, like, re-format them or somethin'? Throwin' away don't sound like a good plan at sixty bucks a pop.

[TTTTttt1]

What OS are you running and what version USB driver?

[jgleason]

cx - They can get corrupted, especially tough on them if you remove them while XP is running, unless you do the "safely remove hardware" thing. You can reformat it, same as any other drive. You could also run chkdsk on it to see if there are any errors - "chkdsk /r" will find and fix errors. Might be easier to just reformat it though.

Unless it is an oddball USB drive, there won't be any special drivers for it. XP recognizes most of the USB drives without a problem. Assuming you keep your system updated Kelly - XP service pack 2 and all updates done from the Windows Update site, right?

[cx]

Originally Posted by Joe

Unless it is an oddball USB drive,....

And just what are you suggesting there, Mr. Gleason?

Naw, it seems like a pretty standard thingee. And no computer has ever had any trouble recognizing it, including federal gov'ment computers, and I ain't got no eye-dee what OS they run.

I learned not to remove it without the "safely remove hardware" thing early on. Accidentally pulled it out and got me an instant shut-down.

But sometimes when I try to do the remove hardware thing, it says no, you can't remove that now, try again later, or some such nonsense. Pull it out then with no problems at all.

I'll pewt it in and try to format and see does that make any difference.

And I do think I am actually up to date on the XP, Joe. Both my confusers seem to prompt me regularly to do that. Otherwise, you'd be quite right in your assumption, though.

[John Bridge]

CX, if one of my computers tells me I can't remove the drive, I shut the computer down and then pull it out.

I've got one of those drives that tells me every time I plug it in that is was not removed properly the time before. Bitchy thing.

[cx]

I figger if the damn confuser can't figger how to stop the damn drive and make it removable it prolly won't be able to figger out I removed the thing.

And I've been right ever time so far. But I don't do it if I got important stuff runnin'.

The little boogers are just soooo handy when you just gotta take stuff next door or pewt it onna laptop to take with you or take some pichers somewhere for a quick show-and-tell or whatever. And they even come with a cord to hang around your neck like your cell-phone so's you don't lose'em, eh, JB?

[John Bridge]

As a matter of fact, I took the cord off the drive I recently acquired and transferred it to my cell phone. Looks dressier than my Schluter badge holder.

[mike1993]

Eventhough it's not directly related to USB problems, CX, but if you always want to have a backup( besides obviuos: external HD, flash drives, dvdr's) check out www.mozy.com. 2Gb of space is free. This is plenty for OE data.

It's very simple to use, and most important: it lets you to chose your own encryption key.
The only drawback is you'd better have fast connection. Otherwise uploading ~1Gb or so of data might be a bit of pain.

[cx]

Thanks, Mike. I have fast connection much of the time, but for about four months a year I have barely any connection at all sometimes. I think I'm better off with portable hardware storage for my backups. And with what's available out there today, I don't think I'd run outta space any time soon.

Biggest problem for me is just doing it on a regular basis. Talk about your real bowdarkskulls.