How to: Partition a hard drive as a back up for different PCs

Plus safely disconnecting the disk from a computer

Q I have just purchased a Toshiba external hard drive with 298GB to back up data from two PCs. I’m thinking of using different partitions for each computer and maybe another for photo editing. Is this possible? Toshiba also warns that you should not turn off a hard disk without dismounting it first. Does that mean disconnecting it?
Jim Carless

A To answer your first question, you can have multiple partitions on your external disk, although it may be more flexible to just go for one big partition and store the backup data from each PC in separate folders.

This way should one folder unexpectedly grow much larger than the others, it can at least use all the available space on the drive.

As for the warnings, Toshiba is referring to disconnecting an external disk while the PC is still switched on. Due to the way operating systems work, a disk may appear to be idle, but there could still be activity taking place or data still to be written to it. Disconnecting it could lose this data.

To safely disconnect an external hard disk you should right-click the system tray icon (near the Windows clock) which shows a grey card and a green arrow pointing down and to the left. This gives you the option to ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ and opens a window that lists devices that are currently connected.

Simply click the one for your external disk and then click Stop. Windows will then ensure any writing to the disk is completed, after which it will report that it’s safe to unplug. Alternatively you can simply shut down your PC and unplug the external disk once the power to the system is off.