"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...
In message , HB writes:
Those I deleted by hand. They were strings of numbers and dates it made
them.

I can see that it might seem to you that the drive is doing
these things, but it's somewhat important that you understand the
difference.

Then software was doing it because a small popup would appear in the lower
right hand corner that would say, "Backup in progress."


It rather sounds as if SG came with software already on it that
automatically makes backups when you connect it - or at least copies
things, whether they are truly backups is arguable. I take it you never
connected it to the Toshiba laptop that has failed.

I never thought to and now it's wiped clean and doing a backup as I type
this. I did it manually as I don't have any info on this Seagate other than
what opens when I click on properties. When I clicked backup the Windows
backup opened and wanted to know where - I pointed it to the SG.


Did the instructions that came with SG tell you how to _use_ the "backups"
that it creates? If not, then it's rather pointless it creating them.

Exactly! I don't know how to use them. I can't recall what came with it as I
bought it some years ago. It's easy enough to get the folders and files
moved from it to the computer itself. But the backups with the string of
numbers/dates etc - no. I may be able to get that info online. I'll be
working with this tonight since this is the main computer we have with
everything on, that is except my wife's interior design and other personal
job related software. That PC is off limits to everyone.

It is _possible_ that this software is something like Macrium, and it _is_
actually creating images. (When you look at what is on it, do you see
single large files - many tens of GB each - with a name that looks
something like a date?) If this is the case, it definitely should have
come with instructions telling you how to restore from them - and probably
a CD that you boot from, or instructions on how to make one, if a machine
it has imaged fails to boot.

It says "Create A System Image" and "Create a Repair disc". But that's from
Windows not SG. The window says the "System Image" copies everything
including the OS and can be reinstalled. Of course it doesn't say how. It's
busy doing a backup right now so I'll get to it later, when it's finished. I
did download Macrium and hope to go over that tonight also.


I don't know what a "Manager" is. That may be the software I was talking
of.

I can't find "manager" tonight. Now where the heck was it.......... ?


How much of that is used?

On this Hewlett Packard W-7 computer, 117GBs are used.

[In effect, you'd be using it as the
"housing" which was my third option out of dock/"cable"/housing, means of
connecting a drive to USB.]

I just checked the Seagate. It appears to be a sealed unit. There are no
screws or tabs or slots to get the case off. It's 2 pieces probably
pressured together. I would have to use some kind of tool to force it open.


the HD from the Toshiba work like the Seagate if a USB cable can be
attached
to it? In that case it would show up under F: drive.

(I'm assuming this "Seagate" contains a 2.5" drive not a 3.5" one, but
even if it's a 3.5", the connectors will be the same.)

I think it's 1 TB also.

Wow, that was an expensive laptop!

She's wealthy and has no kids or grandkids. No one to spend it on but
herself. Everything she has is top of the line. Must be nice.

There are two types of number we're talking about here. There's the
Microsoft one, which looks like XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX, where the
Xs are letters and numbers, and the Toshiba's serial number(s).

I see it. It's called the MS product key. That has to be it.

...... The only way it would be a retail licence, which they
_would_ honour, would be if you'd bought Windows 7 separately from the
computer. (Even then not necessarily, it depends how you bought it. But I
suspect it's highly unlikely you'd have bought it that way anyway.)

She bought it somewere up in Atlanta GA were she lived back then.

I'm not sure where you'd use the Toshiba number(s): if you're very lucky,
it might be possible to download something from the Toshiba website using
them. I've no idea if Toshiba offer anything like that.

I can check.