External hard drive questions

[applefan289]

I just received my external hard drive (1TB WD My Passport Essential SE for Mac).

It just did the complete backup using Time Machine. In the top right of my desktop, there's the icon of the hard drive. Is there any way to remove this icon?

Can I leave my hard drive connected always?

When I shut down the computer, do I have to "eject" the hard drive before shutting down?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I just received my external hard drive (1TB WD My Passport Essential SE for Mac).

It just did the complete backup using Time Machine. In the top right of my desktop, there's the icon of the hard drive. Is there any way to remove this icon?

Finder > Preferences (CMD+,) >> General >>> Show these items on the Desktop >>>> External disks

Can I leave my hard drive connected always?

You can, but you don't need to.

When I shut down the computer, do I have to "eject" the hard drive before shutting down?

No.

Helpful Information for Any Mac User by GGJstudios​

 

[applefan289]

Thanks, quick reply. How would I get to those preferences? Is it System Preferences?

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks, quick reply. How would I get to those preferences? Is it System Preferences?

No, as he said, Finder > Preferences...

 

[applefan289]

No, as he said, Finder > Preferences...

Thanks, figured it out.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thanks, quick reply. How would I get to those preferences? Is it System Preferences?

 

[applefan289]

Image

I also plan to get one for my PC.

For my PC, can I do the same thing, or do I have to "safely remove hardware" or something before turning off my computer with the hard drive still plugged in?

On both my Mac and Windows computer, I'm looking to just leave the drive plugged in with automatic backup (and turn it off whenever I want).

I guess this means I will have to use the hard drive software for the Windows computer, since Windows doesn't have Time Machine, right?

 

[blevins321]

I also plan to get one for my PC.

For my PC, can I do the same thing, or do I have to "safely remove hardware" or something before turning off my computer with the hard drive still plugged in?

On both my Mac and Windows computer, I'm looking to just leave the drive plugged in with automatic backup (and turn it off whenever I want).

I guess this means I will have to use the hard drive software for the Windows computer, since Windows doesn't have Time Machine, right?

Yeah you don't have to eject an external hard drive on Windows shutdown either; it does that itself just like the Mac does. For the backup, you can try the software that came with the drive. To be honest though, most of the time it's terrible. I would use the built in features of Windows 7. Take a look HERE. It'll give a pretty good guide for you to use to enable Windows 7's Time Machine ripoff

 

[applefan289]

Do I need to download the latest firmware for the drives? Is it really necessary? If I bought mine now, would it have the latest firmware already installed?

Also, should I install the WD Smartware software? I kind of want password protection on the drive, but I don't want it to do automatic backups since Time Machine does that.

 

[blevins321]

Do I need to download the latest firmware for the drives? Is it really necessary? If I bought mine now, would it have the latest firmware already installed?

Also, should I install the WD Smartware software? I kind of want password protection on the drive, but I don't want it to do automatic backups since Time Machine does that.

I would update the firmware if possible. Some external drives had problems with powering down too frequently; becoming annoying. You might want to look into Truecrypt; I find it to be a much better encryption platform. Plus it's multiplatform.

Edit: Here is the link. It's open source and free