Thread: Not the end of the world, but.......

Okay, everything seems to be behaving itself now. Ran AVG and spybot, spybot found nothing but AVG picked up 1 problem and fixed it. Coincidence or not, I don't know.

If the backup drive is disconnected after backing up, you should be using the Safe to remove mechanism. This ensures that any data queued to be written to the backup drive will be written and then the system will advise that it is safe to disconnect the drive. Simply physically disconnecting without doing the safe to eject process means that data or the directory structure to find it may be lost. By using the safe to eject mechanism, the system will store the device information parameters so that it knows what driver etc to use the next time the drive is connected.

When it is connected next time the system will quickly reinstate the drive parameters, interrogate the drive and display the autoplay window shown in the first pic. When a removable drive is connected, the system asks what you want to do with it, as it would for a music CD or a video DVD.

When you clicked on the link at the bottom of the window, you basically advised the system that you wanted to change the autoplay options for something on the drive, so it responds by showing the window in the second pic, which displays every type of autoplay material that might come on a removable drive, and allows you to select how you want any given type treated when loaded in the future.

If the backup drive is not normally disconnected prior to shutting down, then you may not get the autoplay window in pic 1, but if anything infects the computer enough to trash the primary drive, it will probably do the same to the backup drive. Therefore a standard backup procedure is to install the backup media or device only when you are sure the system is healthy, do whatever you need in terms of backup, and then remove the backup drive and store in a safe place. Definition of a safe place varies with needs, but once a business' finances or intellectual property is to be backed up, multiple backups and off site storage become important considerations.

Hope the above helps you understand what created the situation you had. In my case, once the system detects a recently loaded removable device and displays the autoplay window, I just have it display the contents in windows explorer or file manager.

Not sure if I made it clear. One day no message, next day message, nothing changed, nothing disconnected. Just clicked n the link to see what options were available. Anyway it's all good now.