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External hard drive question

  • 18-12-2010 7:11pm
    #1
    westgolf
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 834 ✭✭✭


    Hi everyone

    I recently bought an external hard drive as a backup option for my laptop which has quite a bit of hard to replace info etc. My query is this : if I connect the external hard drive to a different laptop or desktop does the other machine need to have the exact same suite of programs as my own in order to access the files on the external hard drive ?

    Mods please move if I have posted in wrong place

    Westgolf


Comments

  • #2
    Alanstrainor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,157 ✭✭✭✭Alanstrainor


    All your files will be accessible on what ever computer you plug your external drive into.


  • #3
    Nulty
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,838 ✭✭✭Nulty


    Are you talking about installign programs on your hard drive? If so the you can only run them from the machiine you installed from afaik


  • #4
    ricman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,559 ✭✭✭ricman


    IF YOU MEAN playing music, video, just install vlc ,player, realplayer and
    you should be able to play anything,you might need quicktime installed, for apple qt files.
    if you mean installing programs,you cant install programs on a hardrive,only on a pc or laptop, eg for photoshop, pdf, you,ll need a photoshop,program or pdf reader installed to load the files.i use foxit pdf reader,its faster and smaller than
    adobe reader.see www.videolan.org ,what type of files are you trying to view? video,mp3s etc


  • #5
    Alanstrainor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,157 ✭✭✭✭Alanstrainor


    ricman wrote: »
    IF YOU MEAN playing music, video, just install vlc ,player, realplayer and
    you should be able to play anything,you might need quicktime installed, for apple qt files.
    if you mean installing programs,you cant install programs on a hardrive,only on a pc or laptop, eg for photoshop, pdf, you,ll need a photoshop,program or pdf reader installed to load the files.i use foxit pdf reader,its faster and smaller than
    adobe reader.see www.videolan.org ,what type of files are you trying to view? video,mp3s etc

    I don't mean to sound harsh or anything. But that post is impossible to read!

    You can install programs on an external drive, however 99% of the time, the programs you install will only work on the computer that you installed the software from.


  • #6
    dunworth1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,365 ✭✭✭dunworth1


    Alanstrainor wrote: »
    I don't mean to sound harsh or anything. But that post is impossible to read!

    You can install programs on an external drive, however 99% of the time, the programs you install will only work on the computer that you installed the software from.


    very hard to understand whats being said


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  • #7
    Dr_Phil
    Closed Accounts Posts: 711 ✭✭✭Dr_Phil


    westgolf wrote: »
    Hi everyone

    I recently bought an external hard drive as a backup option for my laptop which has quite a bit of hard to replace info etc. My query is this : if I connect the external hard drive to a different laptop or desktop does the other machine need to have the exact same suite of programs as my own in order to access the files on the external hard drive ?

    Mods please move if I have posted in wrong place

    Westgolf
    It depends on what kind of backup you talk about. If you mean only copy/cut files or folders from your laptop and paste them onto the external HDD then yes, it will work on every other machine as stated above (not the vast majority of programs, unless they are single binaries though). However, if you will be using a backup program like R-Drive, Norton Ghost, Keep or anything else, then I'm afraid you will have to have this software installed on the PC you will move your external drive to. It is because these programs create usually a single, large file in a format that is only recognizable for them.


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