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Author:	Purley333 [ Sun Jun 22, 2014 9:45 pm ]
Post subject:	External Hard Drive
I have an external hard drive. When I had my Windows XP computer, I used something called XXClone that was recommended to me by the guy at my local computer store. I just used to turn the thing on and XXClone made a cloned copy of my whole hard drive. I don't have the XP Computer any longer. I have one with Windows 7 and a bigger hard drive. I tried XX Clone and it wouldn't work -- it was something to do with having two drives on this computer. Something like that. The guy at the store who sold me the new computer told me that I should just back up my Owner folder from my desktop. I turned the Backup Drive on - I know it's called E. But I must have to delete the stuff that is on there already don't I - and then copy "Owner" to E? Trouble is I don't know how to delete the stuff that is already on my E drive. I don't think I can just copy "Owner" to E - and it will overwrite what is on there! I went to Computer and I can see "E" but I don't know how to delete what is on there. Do I have to actually go into E and select all the files and then right click to delete them? And THEN copy the files from "Owner" once the E drive is empty? Why does everything seem so darn complicated? Thanks for any help.

Author:	jaylach [ Sun Jun 22, 2014 10:04 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
This is a case where I will disagree with your local tech guy to a point. Of course backing up your personal data is most important but I do not consider that to be enough. You should have a system image which is probably what XX Clone did but I can't say for fact as I don't know the software. Yes, you could open up your external drive in either Windows Explorer or My computer and delete everything on the drive but I would not bother unless there were to be some things on the drive that I wanted to keep. Since it seems that the external drive is reported as E: I would just right click on that drive and select to format. As long as the format dialog states NTFS as the file system for the format just go with the defaults and select quick format. Make *VERY* sure that there is nothing on the drive that you want to keep. After the format of the external drive it should still show as E:. Right click on the drive and select Properties. Look for the capacity of the drive. Now look to see how much space your internal drive shows as used space. If the external drive has a larger capacity than what is shown as used space on your internal drive I would use it for a system image. Such imaging software is built into Windows 7 but I won't go there until you check out what I've already said. Even if you use the external drive for a system image it is still a good idea to keep a separate backup of your personal files. Sigh... come back with any questions on the above before you actually do anything. I know that I'm sometimes not the best at putting things in to 'Simple English'.

Author:	sboots [ Sun Jun 22, 2014 10:42 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
You did good, Jay.

Author:	jaylach [ Sun Jun 22, 2014 10:50 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive

Author:	Purley333 [ Mon Jun 23, 2014 12:56 am ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
Well. I was very happy using XXClone. I was told that it made a mirror image of my computer and if my hard disk failed, I could just get the external drive put in - and I would have my total computer. When I got the new computer - Windows 7 - I downloaded XXClone. It looked just like the old XXClone. But when I tried to back up, I got this message. One of the volumes (C) has no Volume Label assigned. It is crucial of XXClone users to positively identify disk volumes by a unique name other than the drive letter (eg C,D etc) because there will be occasions when drive letters are assigned differently. It is also true that the drive that you now call Disk 1 (check it in the Diskmgmt Tool) may become Disk 2 later. So the volume label is an important way to distinguish one volume from another. We urge you to give a unique name to every volume in your computer. Its easy to name the volume. Open the Properties sheet for Local Disk C: and fill in the empty box on the General tab. I have no idea what the heck it's talking about. I am also not prepared to tackle something I don't understand. I THINK what the guy told me is - I don't just have a C drive - I have some other hard drive - or the hard drive is divided in two or something or other! So, my question is, when you say I should really have a system image - how do I do that? XXClone was SO easy before. I just turned the hard drive on and told it to back up -- and it did. I tried to find out how big my "Owner" files were. Don't know how to do that either. I tried right clicking and looking for Properties. Didn't have it. All I do know is that the exernal drive is 160 gig because that was the size of the hard drive on my XP computer. Not that it's any help. What is in "Owner" whether that's a folder or what I also don't understand. But it contained things like Downloads, and my Pictures and My documents etc.

Author:	sboots [ Mon Jun 23, 2014 6:11 am ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
What is the size of your internal drive C:\? Open Windows Explorer and click on Computer to see all connected drives along with their sizes and space available. You may have a Recovery Partition and you may have a drive with multiple active partitions. if you have the former, the Recovery partition is what is used to restore the PC to factory condition. Did you format the external drive per Jay's instructions? Jay referred to using the built in tools for Windows 7. Here's what he was referring to: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutoria ... ndows-7-8/

Author:	Purley333 [ Mon Jun 23, 2014 12:11 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
Thanks for your help and patience with me! I went to Computer and it says: Hard disk drives (2) and Underneath: Local Disk C. OK. Now I read Jay's instructions again and this is what I did. Local Disk C: 140gb free of 232 gb. 232 - 240 = 92 so I guess this means I have used 92 gb of my hard drive? I am guessing this means that I can put the 92 gb I have used onto my 160 gb external drive? E: it said NTFS - 160 gb - used 149 gb so I right clicked and chose Format and I quick formatted my E: (external drive) That is all I have done. It took me a while to be brave enough to follow the instructions! So I guess I am ready for more instructions - PLEASE!

Author:	jaylach [ Mon Jun 23, 2014 3:12 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
OK... There are two ways that you can probably go. 1) If you want to keep using XXClone it would seem that the message that you are getting just means that the software wants the individual drives/partitions to have unique names other than just C:, D:, etc.. If that is the only issue that XXClone is having it is easily fixed. Just Open Windows Explorer or Computer and right click on each drive one at a time and select Properties. Under the General tab there is a text input box at the top. Just type in a unique name for each drive/partition and Apply. Keep repeating this until all drives/partitions are named. Now try XXClone. Attachment: text-input.jpg [ 51.83 KiB \| Viewed 13619 times ] 2) You can use Windows 7's built in imaging software. Just click on the Start Orb and type "backup" without the quotes and click on Backup and restore. From there just follow the prompts selecting your external drive as the destination for the image. You should also select to create a System repair disk regardless of whether you choose to use Windows 7's imaging or not.

Author:	Purley333 [ Mon Jun 23, 2014 3:18 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
Ok. I haven't done that yet. But my next question is going to be - how do you create a system repair disk?

Author:	jaylach [ Mon Jun 23, 2014 3:33 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
You would select the option to create a repair disk from the backup and restore window or, if you create an image through Windows 7, you will be asked if you want to do so after the image is done. The repair disk is created on a CD/DVD. I should add that it looks like XXClone actually 'mirrors' or makes an exact copy of the system drive instead of an image. This would mean that, if you had a system drive failure, you could just replace the internal drive with the external and be good to go. The Windows 7 software makes an image which means that you would not be able to just swap drives if you had a failure. You would need to replace the internal drive and then boot to the repair CD/DVD and select to restore an image.

Author:	Purley333 [ Mon Jun 23, 2014 6:33 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
Thank you very much for all the useful information. I am planning to do all you say, but I am going to wait for a few days. My granddaughter is off with some friends for a holiday in SE Asia and she wants me to print her Vietnam Visa when it comes. I will delay doing any messing around with the computer until after she leaves on Friday morning at 7.30. That way if some calamity befalls the computer, she will be on the plane before it happens! Incidentally, I will tell you the story about XXClone. It was recommended to me by someone who worked at the local computer store when I always buy my computers and where I take them for upgrades etc. At the beginning of April, he went into a local hospital for routine hernia surgery. He had his phone with him and posted a selfie from his hospital bed on Tuesday April 8th, the day of the surgery. On Wednesday he posted that he had a collapsed lung and was being transferred to the General Hospital. He died on the Thursday. I must admit it's strange being able to read his comments. And his daughter is posting messages to him on his Facebook page. Not sure if I like that or not. Still, I guess it keeps his memory alive for her.

Author:	jaylach [ Mon Jun 23, 2014 8:12 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
I don't really know what to say other than I'm sorry for your loss...

Author:	Purley333 [ Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:04 am ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
Well thanks. To tell the truth we weren't all that close except I went to him for local advice. I guess it was more a story about the weirdness of Facebook - how things are nowadays - someone posts from their hospital bed - gives their progress on Facebook almost until they die. Mind you, the silly thing about it is - he was just in for minor surgery!

Author:	jaylach [ Wed Jun 25, 2014 9:32 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
I think that you misunderstand, Acadia. He went in for minor surgery and ended up dead.

Author:	Acadia [ Thu Jun 26, 2014 12:53 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
Wow, my tendency to read thru posts too fast really nailed me this time. Sorry for that Purley. Bill

Author:	Purley333 [ Sat Jun 28, 2014 10:59 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
I want to be sure I am doing the correct thing. For starters, the only drive I can see is C: So I can right click on C: and change the name from C: to . . . . Fred -- or whatever -- and then when I turn on my external drive I want to back up Fred to E: - assuming when I turn on the external drive - it is still called E. I can look in my computer and turn on the drive and then the one that pops up is the external drive - whatever that turns out to be called. So - maybe this is going to confuse me too much. Why can I only see a C drive - if I have more than one drive? And assuming I do have another drive somewhere or other, why do I have another drive and what is it for?

Author:	jaylach [ Sun Jun 29, 2014 12:46 am ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
You may very well just have one drive, C: and that is just fine. It is just that some add another drive or partition (split) a single drive to act as more than one. This may be done for several reasons such as adding a drive to have a backup drive internal so that it works faster or to keep the system drive separate from the data. Just worry about the drive or drives that show. If you are going to stay with XXClone I would also give a name to the external drive. You can name the drives anything you want but to keep things easy I would name the C: drive System and the external Backup. Anyway, yes, you can just right click on the drives and use rename or you can go to the drive properties and type the name in the text box as outlined several posts back. Actually it is easier to just right click and rename. You do actually have another drive that being your CD/DVD optical drive. You just won't see it listed in Computer or Windows Explorer unless it has a CD/DVD loaded. I would not worry about naming this one, not even sure that you can as it would tend to pick up a name according to the CD/DVD that is loaded.

Author:	Purley333 [ Mon Jun 30, 2014 12:22 am ]
Post subject:	Re: External Hard Drive
Thanks. I will do that tomorrow. We have been having torrential rain and it took me a while to get through the flooded roads back from my son's. It's supposed to continue tomorrow so I don't think I will be going anywhere so will figure out how to name my drives!

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