external hard drive question.

[Arnold72]

hi

Is it totally neccessary for my external hard drive to be continually running with my computer.?

Ive made several back ups and im just wondering if my drive needs to be connected and running.

I dont do incremental back ups.so am i ok to dis connect.?

Thanks.

[Strenalis]

It can depend on what you use your hard drive for, but generally you only need to connect it when you need to access what's on it. If yours is for system backups, then there should be no need to keep it connected. I use mine at home for media, and I only connect it when I want to access it.

Hope this helps.

[AdvancedSetup]

Actually keeping a backup drive disconnected when not in use would be better. If you do happen to get infected and it's connected to the system it is very likely to get infected too.

[David H. Lipman]

Just to add...

The External Hard Disk only needs to be connected as-needed. However, when you remove it, make sure you use the "Safely Remove Hardware" function so you don't corrupt the data written to the External Hard Disk.