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| Thread ID: 78025 | 2007-03-31 03:36:00 | External hard drive | Ron24 (337) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 537226 | 2007-03-31 03:36:00 | Have installed a 200 odd Gig external hard drive and just trying to find out how to use the thing. One problem is that I cannot format it, as it says it's "Write Protected". As far as I can see there is no removable tab as on floppy. Problem 2 is the photo's that I copied onto it, show as an icon, but when double clicked to try and open, it says that it can't open the photo until it knows what created it. The idea was to use this drive as a backup, but all it does is give me a headache. Help appreciated..Ron24 |
Ron24 (337) | ||
| 537227 | 2007-03-31 03:40:00 | I'm not very good at external HDD but will try to help. What type of external HDD is that and try to post the web link of the external hard drive if possible. | PedalSlammer (8511) | ||
| 537228 | 2007-03-31 04:12:00 | With your photos it means Windows does not know what program to use to open them with. Go into Folder options, file types, find JPG or whatever your photos are in, then associate that with a suitable program. MS Picture Viewer, even IE would do. As for the HDD, is it in an enclosure? Did you install it in the enclosure yourself or did you buy it already like that? |
pctek (84) | ||
| 537229 | 2007-03-31 04:43:00 | Thanks for the reply and afraid that I am not a lot of help. I bought this HDD on Trademe and it was already setup in the enclosure. All it says on the outside of the case is "3.5 External Enclosure" . Have just found the box that it came in. It is a 3.5" IDE hard disk drive, with all sorts of specifications written on it. OK on the associating the icons, will try that, but now my main problem is getting rid of the stuff that I have on the drive, so that I can start again. That means fixing this Write Protected thing. When this is all done, I then want to know how to back up files and photo's to this external drive. Sorry for being so dumb...Ron.. |
Ron24 (337) | ||
| 537230 | 2007-03-31 05:04:00 | Are you running Vista by any chance? There seems to a known problem running an XP formatted external drive on a Vista machine, which may also account for the non-associated files. An article here (msinfluentials.com) on the issue. |
Ferg (2559) | ||
| 537231 | 2007-03-31 06:47:00 | It could help if you let us know the brand of the drive. Did you buy it as a new one?, because it sounds like it might already have been used. If you are not worried about losing the files that you already have on there you can just go ahead and reformat the disc. If you have Win XP go into My Computer and the external drive will likely show up as 'E' drive. Make sure you know which is the correct icon for the external drive because you will be wiping ALL files on the drive (you can click on the drive icon and it will show the files already on there). When you are sure you have the correct disc left click the disc icon and the pop-up menu will appear, move your cursor down and click on 'format' then follow the instructions from there. |
Shortcircuit (1666) | ||
| 537232 | 2007-03-31 08:03:00 | Failing that you might have to check the drive is OK. You could take it out of the enclosure and hook it up via IDE and run the manufacturers HDD tools over it. | pctek (84) | ||
| 537233 | 2007-03-31 23:16:00 | I am running xp2pro and formatting the disk is the problem. The junk that I have put on it won't open the photo's as my original complaint. Now I want to clear everything from the disk and start again. When I click format, I get "The disk is write protected", so no action. I know about floppies being write protected and the removing of the tab, but can an HDD be write protected??. As far as I know it's brand new and it came in a sealed box.. Thanks for the help..Ron.. |
Ron24 (337) | ||
| 537234 | 2007-04-01 00:01:00 | 1. read the instructions (if any supplied) to see if they mention a 'write protect' switch on the enclosure. 2. Have a look and see if there is a switch or lever on the outside of the HD that could be switched on to write protect it. |
Shortcircuit (1666) | ||
| 537235 | 2007-04-01 01:30:00 | If it was mine, I would remove the HD and connect it into my computer and see if the same problem persists. If you can use it OK then I would suspect the drive hardware and there are heaps of external HD enclosures available If the same problem of being unable to format persists, I would suspect that the drive has been locked. This is a firmware function and this program may just be able to help Treat it with care as it is very powerful but in my experiments I was able to lock, unlock and secure erase drives. cmrr.ucsd.edu www.pcadvisor.co.uk |
Tony.br (4018) | ||
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