Using 2 computers with 1 Ext Hard Drive

Smudge · 06-13-2008, 02:55 AM

Just got a 250GB Western Digital external hard drive. This will be used only to backup data. I would like to know if I can use this on two different machines with different operating systems. Computer 1 is a laptop running Windows Vista. I have about 10 GB of photos and 5 GB of data all of which is under "Documents."

Computer 2 is a desktop running XP Media Center. Here I have about 10 GB of pics and about 10 GB of data all under "My Documents." I may decide to backup a few Gigs of music on both machines as well. Can I do this with my Ext. Hard Drive? I do not plan on using the included software that came with the Ext HD - just copy and paste method to the Ext HD. If this is possible, is there anything special that I have to do when going from one computer to the next or can I just plug into USB 2.0 port and copy and paste? Also, can I seperate documents from Computer 1 and Computer 2 by naming them as such? Thanks

06-13-2008, 02:55 AM	#1 (permalink)
Smudge Silver Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 119	Using 2 computers with 1 Ext Hard Drive Just got a 250GB Western Digital external hard drive. This will be used only to backup data. I would like to know if I can use this on two different machines with different operating systems. Computer 1 is a laptop running Windows Vista. I have about 10 GB of photos and 5 GB of data all of which is under "Documents." Computer 2 is a desktop running XP Media Center. Here I have about 10 GB of pics and about 10 GB of data all under "My Documents." I may decide to backup a few Gigs of music on both machines as well. Can I do this with my Ext. Hard Drive? I do not plan on using the included software that came with the Ext HD - just copy and paste method to the Ext HD. If this is possible, is there anything special that I have to do when going from one computer to the next or can I just plug into USB 2.0 port and copy and paste? Also, can I seperate documents from Computer 1 and Computer 2 by naming them as such? Thanks

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