New external hard drive?

Question

Hi. I just connected a shiny new 500GB external hard drive to my xp-based laptop. Yay! It's like a new beginning, no? But I'm cautious about just dragging/dropping everythimg from the main drive (80GB) to the new external. Any advice would be appreciated. The new external is 7200rpm Seagate in a Wiebetech enclosure which they formatted for me at the local store. But they just sent me on my merry way with no extra software or advice, except to plug the monster in (firewire) and to always "safely remove hardware." I'm wondering whether I should just drag everything from MyDocuments onto the new external (how will this affect certain applicatons)? Also, what is that folder on the new external labeled ".Trashes" and the file called "._.Trashes" Can I delete these? Also, can I change the drive name? It's defaulted as "Jiggy" which I think i consider utterly nonsensical. Thanks for any advice.

Answer 1

You can drag and drop the my documents folder no problem, this will only copy the folder to the new drive, not delete it from your current drive. Yes you can rename the volume and the trashes is probably the local trash can folder for that drive.

Answer 2

External hard drives are really convenient and easy to use. Most are plug-and-play devices meaning you can just USB connect and your computer will read it. Anything in your My Documents folder can be copied over, but if you delete it from your main drive just be sure you change any links you have to the new drive. A lot of people use external drives for movies, pictures, documents, etc. that don't need to be on the main drive. I'm not sure on renaming, but the folder/file sounds like someone set up a "recycle bin" for unwanted files.

Answer 3

Just plug it in. Then you can manage it with Windows Storage Manager. And yes, you can change it every day if you like.