Windows 11

[Golddollar]

I acquired a separate hard drive years ago. All this talk about losing information from a computer has encouraged me to slap the hard drive on the computer when I go to bed.

 

[pasound]

Be careful with those outboards, especially if they are your primary storage or primary backup. Just talked to a good friend on the "left coast" who left his 8Tb backup drive plugged in his "hot swap" overnight. Windows 11 (or something else related) decided to reboot, and the drive lost its identity. No drive letter, no data. Luckily, he had most of the data on a separate machine, scattered across several 1Tb outboard and "hot swap" drives. He reformatted the 8Tb, and it seems to work properly, again.

I usually leave any backup or storage drives unplugged unless I'm currently using them. He doesn't leave the 8Tb plugged in now, either.

 

[JcMack]

FWIW: I've got 2 Dell desktops that are running WIN10 and Office 2007. They are clones of one another, so if one PC takes a hit I have a total backup to replace it. also have 2 laptops that are running Win11 and Office 2007. The Dells are not upgradeable to WIN11. I'll probably pay for support on the Dells after Oct. My biggest squawk with WIN10/11 is the GUI. It's like a cartoon checkers game. So I use a program called Classic Shell on all the aforementioned computers to that restores the user interface to the appearance and functionality of WIN7 or WIN10, your choice.

 

[Jonzim]

My upgrade to W11 on a Dell machine was seamless. You should have no issues as others have stated. I did purchase an Apple Macbook Air recently at the new lower prices. The Dell will be my last windows machine so I am slowly learning the ropes with the Apple and transitioning files over. I already use an iPhone and iPad so that has been a big help.
Also words of advice, BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP.......

 

[glenwolde]

I learned it's a lot easier if you keep up with things as they come along. It's easier to adapt to several smaller changes than one really big one. The newer software is more secure and crashes less running newer stuff.

If you don't like it you don;t have to use it. There are several alternatives. Mac OS, Chromebook, Linux. I gave up on Windows and went to Linux, and now just a Chromebook. Though I think the days of $99 Chromebooks are over. Of course that would be and even bigger change.

 

[WR Moore]

I had 10, Microsoft did one of those upgrades and I likely have 11. Things are a bit different. Maybe 10.5?

Question: What's a "hot swap"? I've been using an 8T backup that continually updates and don't want to lose the stuff that's on there.

 

[pasound]

Question: What's a "hot swap"? I've been using an 8T backup that continually updates and don't want to lose the stuff that's on there.

A hot swap is a slot with sometimes a caddy in the computer chassis, with hookup to an open SATA channel on the motherboard. Microsoft developed this with several manufacturers years ago. Probably as old as Win 8.1. The idea is that the drive can be ejected like a USB memory device and then removed without data loss. In practice, it doesn't always work because some drives do not power down, thus the necessity to shut the computer down first.
I have had the best success by using NAS (network attached storage) drives, which power themselves down if idle. My friend's is a NAS, but it's slow to power down so he won't leave it in all the time, and shuts down to swap.

The picture is the front of my desktop Antec case, with a WD Red drive inserted (but not seated). Sitting on the top is a caddy branded "Icy Dock" which will hold small format drives, such as laptop or SSD, and then insert and seat in the slot.

 

[TX-Dennis]

I had 10, Microsoft did one of those upgrades and I likely have 11. Things are a bit different. Maybe 10.5?

Question: What's a "hot swap"? I've been using an 8T backup that continually updates and don't want to lose the stuff that's on there.

Most USB drives are considered "hot swappable" meaning you do not have to power down the machine in order to plug them in or unplug them.

There were also older desktops that had hot swappable bays that allowed you to slide in additional drives and to remove them as needed. I haven't seen one of those in years, but surely some are still running. There was a name for them that I cannot recall at the moment.

EDIT: Apparently pasound and I were posting nearly simultaneously. Evidently the hot swappable bays are still around.

 

[GnarlsR2]

Be careful with those outboards, especially if they are your primary storage or primary backup. Just talked to a good friend on the "left coast" who left his 8Tb backup drive plugged in his "hot swap" overnight. Windows 11 (or something else related) decided to reboot, and the drive lost its identity. No drive letter, no data. Luckily, he had most of the data on a separate machine, scattered across several 1Tb outboard and "hot swap" drives. He reformatted the 8Tb, and it seems to work properly, again.

I usually leave any backup or storage drives unplugged unless I'm currently using them. He doesn't leave the 8Tb plugged in now, either.

"I usually leave any backup or storage drives unplugged unless I'm currently using them. He doesn't leave the 8Tb plugged in now, either."

I plug in my external SSDs one at a time. Do a back up of the files I want saved. When finished, I unplug the SSDs.
The only time the backup SSDs are plugged in and not is backup mode is if I'm searching for a file in a previous backup.

 

[Golddollar]

A hot swap is a slot with sometimes a caddy in the computer chassis, with hookup to an open SATA channel on the motherboard. Microsoft developed this with several manufacturers years ago. Probably as old as Win 8.1. The idea is that the drive can be ejected like a USB memory device and then removed without data loss. In practice, it doesn't always work because some drives do not power down, thus the necessity to shut the computer down first.
I have had the best success by using NAS (network attached storage) drives, which power themselves down if idle. My friend's is a NAS, but it's slow to power down so he won't leave it in all the time, and shuts down to swap.

The picture is the front of my desktop Antec case, with a WD Red drive inserted (but not seated). Sitting on the top is a caddy branded "Icy Dock" which will hold small format drives, such as laptop or SSD, and then insert and seat in the slot.

You lost me after "slot."