How do external hard drives work? My computer is slowing down bigtime, because I have literally a couple of weeks worth of music in Windows Media Player. If i got an external hard drive and put all this music on it, and I wanted to use these files for some reason such as listening pleasure or sync to and mp3 player, would I have to go in and retrieve it out of the new equipment or would it just automatically show up. I guess what Im asking is how easy these things are to use with windows media player. And please put in laymans terms, Im not that computer literate.
2007-03-06 13:45:05 · 3 answers · asked by echo13ng01 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Add-ons
External drives are very simple and non-complex to operate. They simply connect through USB on your computer and show up promptly in your My Computer window. When you copy the files onto the external drive, this will greatly increase speed in your other drive, which you said has been lagging. When your done with copying the files, go into WMP11 and delete your library. WMP11 will try to look for it in it's old place and it wont' be there; it'll be on the external. So after the library is deleted, click add files to library, find your external drive, and import the files. Also, when you move the files out of the regular drive into the external, go into Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter and defrag your hard drive that the music is on right now. This can also speed up your drive significantly.
2007-03-06 14:05:19 · answer #1 · answered by Big Q 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Most external hard drives connect to your PC via USB. The first time you use it, your PC will install drivers to recognize it. Then on, your PC will automatically see the hard drive. Yo can then transfer your music to the external hard drive. Then you would have to go into Windows Media Player and go to File > Add to Library > and then select your new hard drive number (could be E: or F: or so on) > directory of the music location if necessary. They are really easy to use. Just like connecting your MP3 player to your computer except these can hold a lot more files/movies/mp3's/etc. Hopefully this helps.
2007-03-06 13:53:32 · answer #2 · answered by boudro28 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
For external hard drives i always use a USB 2 connection.
It is not as fast as your internal drive, but it's pretty good.
It will show up on you "my computer" screen just like any other drive such as hard drives, thumb drives, cdrom drives, etc.
The price is pretty good for USB drives too.
You can get between 250GB and 350 GB for about $100.
2007-03-06 13:50:51 · answer #3 · answered by BILL@CA 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋