[AT] For those tractor (er computer) geeks on here

[Larry D. Goss]

I'm on my third one, David.  They work exceptionally well.  I have both
Seagate and Western Digital.  They come with two "power cords" so that
if your laptop (or desktop) is only equipped with USB 1.0 you can shunt
additional DC power to the drive through a second USB port.  I haven't
needed the shunt cable with its "Y" connection on any of my equipment.
Both brands are completely powered through a single USB port.

The only caveat is, DON'T DISCONNECT THE EXTERNAL DRIVE WITHOUT HAVING
SOFTWARE SHUT IT DOWN.  For that matter, don't let your laptop hibernate
with the USB drive connected to it.  So if you attach a USB drive to
your laptop, the first thing you want to do is to reset your power
options so that the computer NEVER turns off and the drives NEVER turn
off.  BTDT and I had to go around and around with Western Digital to get
them to understand that the drive had self-destructed without me doing
anything except letting the computer set idle in a motel room while I
sorted through a bunch of tractor literature in preparation for scanning
materials into PDF files.  When I went back to it about a half hour
later, the USB drive had logically disconnected itself and because it
wasn't shut down by the software in Windows XP correctly.  From that
point onward, the drive was not recognized by any of my equipment.
Western Digital made good on the USB drive, but I lost a couple Gig's of
file material.

The bottom line is: USB drives are "plug and play", but they are NOT
"unplug and get on with your life".  You have to use the software to
shut them down before unplugging.  The process actually turns off the
motor of the drive and makes sure the process happens when the drive is
idle.

FWIW, at a tractor show last month, I ran across a piece of literature I
needed a copy of, but I was out in the middle of a fairground with no AC
available.  So I borrowed an "El Cheapo" inverter (one of the smaller
one's made) and used it to power one of my HP All-in-one's through the
cigarette lighter in the Jeep.  No problems.  I think I'll ask for my
own cheap inverter from Harbor Freight or Northern Tool for my birthday
next month.

BTW, the reason I'm on the third one is that I find USB drives are
really cheap insurance.  Since we've had two close calls with tornados
this spring, I sleep a whole lot easier knowing I have stuff archived
somewhere else.  It doesn't take too much study of the history and
product life of storage systems for you to realize that whatever system
you use for backup and mass storage is going to have to migrate to new
systems as technology changes.  At present, I'm putting everything into
either PDF or JPG format and then either burning CD's and/or putting it
on USB drives.  As a further method of distributing the materials to
make sure it stays available, I give copies of the CD's away to other
collectors who are working with the same brand of tractors that I am
(Power King), and I generate one new "master" CD per year for them.  In
case you're wondering why I would do such a crazy thing instead of
selling them, one of the collectors in the group I work with lost
everything (including his computer and all the archiving he had done
with it) in a house fire this winter.  The only copies of his work that
exist are those that he gave or sold to other Power King collectors.

Larry

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of David Bruce
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2006 8:01 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: [AT] For those tractor (er computer) geeks on here

I consider myself pretty aware about computer hardware from about 4 
years ago (I know a lifetime ago).  Walking through some retailer (I 
don't remember who) the other day I saw a pocket sized USB HD.  
Interesting to me from a curiosity view and I was wondering if anyone 
had tried one of these.
Maybe would be a good place to store all those tractor pictures and the 
tractor email.

David
NW NC


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