Grandms - I checked hidden icons and it wasn't there. So I just did it by turning off the computer. Canibus - since I have an on/off switch, if I turn that off, is it sufficient to do that first - then disconnect the esata cable? I did unplug it - but may have turned it off, disconnected from pc, and then unplugged power. These are such important things - the order of shut down and disconnection. It's something I never thought about until very recently - and several people I've talked to since had no idea about the safely remove hardware button - or the order of disconnecting,powering down an external drive. The people I talked to just unplugged the drive - and so far they've been very, very lucky. When I reconnect the ext. drive, just want to be sure I have the order correct: computer off connect external drive to power adapter and plug it in connect esata (or usb) cable to computer turn on the hard drive (or do I turn it on before connecting to pc?) turn on the computer I'm asking bc. I just got an external drive for my daughter's computer and the instructions don't say anything about whether the computer has to be off or on before connecting the ext. drive. Thanks. Lynn.

Point taken, I would like the flexibility of adding/removing, as that be the reasoning for the storage part of patterns, also, the need to find quickly is another. Still, looking into external tho, as gathering a great number of flashdrives and keeping track of what's on them perhaps isn't the easiest route to go either? Why did I start this in the first place? I have something called PAS, (pattern acquisition syndrome) for those unfamiliar with the term, and you just keep collecting, and gathering, sorta like a hoarder? I, because I want to keep the craft/art of crochet alive and well, and hoping to pass this wonderful "hoard" of goods on to someone that can appreciate the gifts gathered. Thank you all for your thoughts, still pondering, and will probably til I get to the store, and see the array in front of me. Appreciated your input greatly, so nice to have others give me different viewpoints as to the capabilities of storage.

I have three external drives constructed by using hard drives pulled from computers that were headed to the recycle center. I purchased hard drive enclosures from eBay and added the drives. The installation was very easy. The drives are recognised very quickly and data transfer is fast enough with USB 2.0. They act very much like a flash drive and no driver is required unless you have Windows 98 or older. I paid less then $20 for the enclosures and got the drives for free. All of my enclosures have on/off switches and LEDs indicating power and usage. One uses a notebook drive and it can fit in my shirt pocket very nicely.I would recommend converting an extra drive if you have one. External drives are great for additional storage. They are also excellent for sharing and transporting files between several computers.

Try hooking the drive up using a different USB port if you use the same one all of the time; some times it will find it again, and everything will be fine. Once you find it, open my computer to look for the drive icon. What you need to do is make the my computer window smaller - then click the drive icon and drag it to your desktop. This will give you a new link for it and save you having to go to my computer all of the time. I would back the drive up. I've had 2 externals go bad on me, I don't use them for staorage any more. If your computer will take another hard drive, consider getting one and running everything from there. The only time I use an external drive is to back up a computer I am working on. I don't trust them any more.