Like later poster says, maybe your rig has a problem. In reviews they've said things like "has anyone ever heard of a flash drive failure?"... kind of thing. I use mine daily as backup and file transfer and haven't had one fail. Of course, it's only been a couple of years so far. The next wave in storage is for NAND(?) flash memory to *entirely replace* the mechanical HD... something about non-volatile flash has to be pretty right for technology to move that far in that direction.
You can check E-Bay or buy the two items below and have 80GB of USB storage that fits in your shirt pocket. ( I got my 80GB on Ebay for $100 shipped) 100GB will run about $30 more than 80GB Search Ebay using *USB 100GB* or look for the following two items from your favorite retailer http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=WD800UE&cat=HDD http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=A-USBIDE-25-M1&cat=CAS
I got a 40GB West Digital passport external HD for $119 at Best Buy. I plugged it in Pc#1, and got assigned drive e:\. I moved it to Pc # 2 and was assigned e:\. I thought, wow this seems so seamless!. I now have this charting program point to e:\ for both PC's and works great. Lo and behold, my wife plugged in an Ipod and the next time I plugged HD, it got reassigned to f:\. I thought, no big deal,let me unplug the Ipod , reboot, etc I can get it to go to e again. Such was not the case. Even though the laptop has the e available, I can't get the HD to get assigned to e. Is there way to manually assign the HD to e? Thanks
Just hit "Browse" for file selection, if you're trying to use the same file everytime for charting, then you can select from any drive. It should autoselect/detect the same drive every time after that unless drive paths/letters have changed. The same drive letter is not neccesary for ea. PC. If you plug/ unplug or change HD, partition, etc.....then you'll have to manually select your file & file path from the passport.....like anything else. Yes, you can also re-assign the drive letter....but I use norton partion magic to do it.......so this is likely not much help to you for the re-assigning drive letter part. PS, my last 80gb WD passport was $85 . Passports are so plug and play friendly AND no damn power cord!!!!...especially vs. USB HD that are put into a shell case like one of the previous posters showed. I've had each, and outta all my toys, the passport is my fav.
Thanks Mr. NBBO. I really like the passport. The problem is my charting program needs a drive source/directory in order to find the data. This is where it blows up. When I plug the passport in PC1, it assigns lets say drive e:\, but when I plug into PC 2 it assigns a different letter f: or sometimes g: depending on how many USB ports are used in PC2. Are you saying there is a way to partition the passport itself so that it can be called something that won't be touched by either PC''s? like drive Y for example? Thanks