Hi,

I have Win2K pro, SP4 rollup.

In February '07, I bought a Western Digital USB 2.0, 120 GB Passport
Portable HDD, 5,400 rmp, from Costco. Preformatted as FAT32. Works great so
far, auto installed properly

Questions, not covered in any literature which came with the drive:

- run in horizontal position, or does it matter?
- How reliable is this spinning drive, especially drawing its power from
the USB port?
- Suppose it's wise to handle very carefully when plugged in?

The box states the included USB cable is 22", but it's only about 9". Got
to get that fixed.

I plan to copy files which came with the drive, to one of my fixed HDDs,
reformat the portable to NTFS. Copy files back.

Any suggestions about the drive or procedures?

Thanks!
Dugie

Previously Dugie <d_fren@nospamhotmail.com> wrote:
Not unless it is required for proper cooling. The HDD itself can be
operated in any position. Is this a 2.5" HDD device? If so, cooling is
likely not an issue.

The source of power is not an issue. The reliability is that of
the drive. As with all digital storage except some high-reliability
media (MOD, maybe DVD-RAM, archival Tape), anything you have only one
copy of can be lost without warning. HDDs are pretty reliable today.
Still, they can fail and failure without warning is a real possibility.

Yes. Although if it is a notebook HDD (2.5"), it may even survive a
small drop. Best not handle it at all while running.

A rip-off. Not unheard of.

Make a copy of the software to someplace else and try whether the
copy works. If it does, then use ordinary copy operations.

Arno

"Arno Wagner" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:56ber3F27geabU1@mid.individual.net...
Thanks for the reply.

Not sure how to tell if it's a 2.5". The drive case measures:
5" w x 3.1" deep x 9/16" high. So it seems smaller than 3". :-)

I've learned today. MOD= media. magneto-optical disks.
I'm still vague on details. -

So you'd class this portable HD as a "regular" HDD, subject only to the
perils of any HDD.
That is reassuring. One copy is bad.

Kind of common sense, I think, for dropping and handling.
Exception: the hated (to me) Iomega ZIP drive and it's click of death. I've
had three of 'em go that way. And I was careful. I called Iomega support
for help, and the guy was not helpful; said "You must be careful with ZIP
drives, you can't bump them, etc." Had me do a "test" while he listened to
the drive as it clicked, then said it wasn't the drive.

With WD? I'm surprised. I'll ask for the 22." But my error, it's not stated
on the box, but it's stated in the supplied booklet and in the WD Portable
QicGuide.pdf.

Now I wonder if NTFS format is a good idea, since W2K is very hard to
restore from an OS crash, has no restore points. At least my NTFS Reader
freeware software can read from NTFS only, and copy to FAT32 only.
Decisions.

Dugie

Previously Dugie <d_fren@nospamhotmail.com> wrote:
The next form-factor is 3.5", which is about 1" in height. So this
is a 2/5" drive.

Ah, yes. I had one too. That was one badly designed product!
It basically destroyed itself.

Ah, ok. Then it is probably just a mistake.

Well. I have my XP completely on FAT32 for easy beackups (I use
Linux for that). No issues so far. Partition size is limited to,
I think, 128GB, so that would still fit your drive.

Arno

"Arno Wagner" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:56cu3eF28qiavU2@mid.individual.net...
It is 2.5", the WD tech confirmed.

<snip>

Good phrasing! It did destroy itself; either the drive, disk, or both.
Iomega's president? made some radio? announcement, that it would replace
those drives. But didn't happen, at least here in Canada.

I donno if it's a mistake. :-) But the good news is that when I called
WD's tech line, Tamara apologized, and with no hassle, said she'd have a
replacement 22" cable sent by ground UPS, 2-3 day arrival.
I'm happy with WD. They continue to retain their good rep by backing their
products and giving good, polite service.


I asked the tech Tamara my questions:

- drive position doesn't matter
- Yes, can handle a working drive, move around carefully, just don't drop
it.
- Vague on NTFS formatting, just said it's ok. But no mention of backing
up, then restoring, the OEM files, and I didn't ask.

I'm still trying to decide. FAT32 MAY offer better recovery for my W2K
Pro. I thought NTFS was much more efficient, has smaller cluster sizes,
allows more data storage (like much more summary data in .jpgs, and other
items).
There's a FAT32 4GB file size limit, which may affect sizes of backup
files.

Think I'll disable write caching on all HDDs to lessen chances of data
loss, and watch performance. It can't be enable on the portable.

Thank you for your ideas and support. A lot of this may be OT, but it's
fun.

Dugie

"Arno Wagner" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message news:56cu3eF28qiavU2@mid.individual.net
Which is the platter size, babblebot, not the actual drive width.

And some of them are ~2/3 of that, 3.5" knows different heights.
Single platter drives don't need 1" height.

Like there are no 2" drives, eh babblebot.
2.5" inch drives are 70mm wide, which only barely fits
that enclosure, with only 2-3 mm to spare at each side.

Like hell it is when the source of power is below par.

Don't tempt the babblebot.

No. Really?

Yeah, obviously harddrives don't do that. They live forever.

Isn't he flexible, our babblebot.

Like you are, babblebot?

"Dugie" <d_fren@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message news:0IiMh.13341$PV3.137833@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca
Good to know the world is still round and and physics still apply.

Uhuh. So everything else in your house that ever failed, you killed it, right?
Obviously that didn't destroy itself when it failed.

Yeah, now let's see babblebot make something up in between.

Thank you for entertaining the babblebot. It loves you.
It stays up days and nights on end, to be able to babble to you.

Previously Dugie <d_fren@nospamhotmail.com> wrote:
With a notebook drive, I tend to agree.

Definitely!

Arno

Arno Wagner wrote:
<edited, for brevity>

Hello, Arno:

It should be readily apparent that the USB hard disk, in question, is
2.5" -- simply because the original poster ("Dugie") had mentioned it's
bus-powered.

DUH!! :-P


Cordially,
John Turco <jtur@concentric.net>

In article <56ber3F27geabU1@mid.individual.net>, Arno Wagner wrote:
9 inches (American) ~= 22cm (rest of the world)
Considering the number of translated documents we see where the source
language was (approximately) Taiwanese, the target was English, and the
translator could handle Latin to Navajho via Serbo-Croat ... only. Well,
screwing up a units conversion is only to be expected.
And considering the normal standard of trnaslation (deliberate ! <G>),
you'd not be surprised to think that some people think that "in" is the
American abbreviation for "cm". After all, the number of letters is the same.

--
Aidan Karley
Aberdeen, Scotland
Written at Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:34 GMT, but posted later.

Previously John Turco <jtur@concentric.net> wrote:
So what? I am not doing posting forensics here. If it requires
an exchange more, were is the problem?

Arno

Previously Aidan Karley <name1_name2@email.provider.invalid> wrote:
Ahhh, good guess! That is probably what happened!


And then there is the small problem that most places on this planet
use moderm SI units. There are just a few backward places left and not
everybody may know about their obscure measurement system....

Arno

"Arno Wagner" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message news:56fogiF292conU2@mid.individual.net
Right you are: you are babblebot. Happily babbling without a clue, as always.

No problem at all.
The more you show yourself clueless, the better, babblebot.

"Arno Wagner" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message news:56fomcF292conU3@mid.individual.net
Yeah, a real rippoff, like you said.

Yeah, he obviously failed to mention that.
Good of you, babblebot, glad to know you are still awake and alert.

"Aidan Karley" <name1_name2@email.provider.invalid> wrote in message
news:VA.00001335.0cd9bd17@email.provider.invalid.. .
Levity, Aidan? lol.

I'll reply to one message in this thread to date, being unfamiliar with
this ng. I appreciate all the help, so thanks.
Canada is a mix of metric and "American" (British?) measure, damn the
Canadian governments swithering.

According to the WD tech Tamara, the cable IS supposed to be 22", as
mentioned in my post of Wed, March 21, 2007 6:53 PM. Tamara did not mention
cm at all. :-)

Ending is happy, I get my cable. I'm still concerned about power supply to
this USB device, but can live with it. Unless it fails.

Dugie

In article <FvBMh.13789$PV3.141525@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca>, Dugie wrote:

what the Americans mistakenly call British measures) since I was about 3, and
I expect that we'll still be working on it when the stick me in the corner of
a field and plant a tree on top of me.

short cable back, but they told you to keep it.
(Personally I find the shorter cables to be more useful. But then my
work/ travel bag carries the best part of a kilo of power leads, plugs,
adaptors, USB hubs, external hard drives ... )

--
Aidan Karley
Aberdeen, Scotland
Written at Fri, 23 Mar 2007 07:57 GMT, but posted later.

Arno Wagner wrote:
<edited, for brevity>


Hello, Arno:

I was just pointing out that it couldn't have been a 3.5" drive.


Cordially,
John Turco <jtur@concentric.net>

Previously John Turco <jtur@concentric.net> wrote:

Yes, and I was pointing out that I did not read the posting
carefully. So what?

Arno

Arno Wagner wrote:
<edited, for brevity>


Hello, Arno:

So, nothing. <g>


Cordially,
John Turco <jtur@concentric.net>

Previously John Turco <jtur@concentric.net> wrote:

Ok. <g>

Arno