Windows 10 Laptop Question

ralphnjoann wrote:
One of these times when the computer doesn't recognize it, go into Disk Management and make sure it has a drive letter assigned. Solved my problem.

NEVER assign a removable "drive" a drive letter..

Forcing drive letters can get tricky especially if you assign two different removable devices with same letter and insert both at the same time..

Always best to allow OS dynamically assign a letter to removable drives..

Generally if a removable drive does not show up with a letter, the drive is either unreadable (corrupt) for some reason or OS is busy doing higher priority items and all you have to do is wait a couple of minutes..

As always if a USB drive or SD card fails to work, try it in a different port, different PC, different reader..

Sometimes OS may want to you to FORMAT the drive if it thinks it is corrupt.. try it in a different PC before doing that, formating erases your data making it difficult to impossible to retrieve..

I have also run into the dirty dismount issues, especially on USB drives were folks just pull them out of the port.. OS will insist on "fixing" the errors due to improper drive removal.. Always use the eject for USB drives.

SD cards, especially the built in readers, you do not need to or want to eject the card in the OS, ejecting in this case removes the reader and the only way to get the reader back on internal built in ones is a reboot..

One of these times when the computer doesn't recognize it, go into Disk Management and make sure it has a drive letter assigned. Solved my problem.

Then I would look at the Thunderbolt RAID 1 enclosure if you want to build your own. Fairly straightforward.

It looks like the RAID 1 will do what I need. The laptop has Thunderbolt 3 /USB C 3.2. A two drive enclosure would be convenient. I'll have to do some more reading about NAS and RAID, you have me pointed in the right direction.

hypoxia wrote:
Perhaps I should start another thread but since you are on the subject of RAID, NAS etc., what is the best way to backup the laptop which travels in the camper for months at a time? I have been thinking of having two portable hard drives. I would copy an image to each?? The laptop has a 2TB SS drive.

If you're just using this for image backups, than a RAID 1 would work fine. A 2-drive enclosure can be fairly compact such as this Vantec Nexstar GX USB 3.0 - used as an illustrated example as I don't have personnel experience with this enclosure. If you want something even smaller, they do make M.2 SSD stick RAID enclosures.

You don't need to use SSD, lower cost 2T HDD work fine for RAID 1. Personally, I only use a single portable WD Passport HD when I travel. Never had an issue.

hypoxia wrote:
Perhaps I should start another thread but since you are on the subject of RAID, NAS etc., what is the best way to backup the laptop which travels in the camper for months at a time? I have been thinking of having two portable hard drives. I would copy an image to each?? The laptop has a 2TB SS drive.

The "popular" answer now days is to the "cloud".

I am NOT a "fan" of the "cloud" stuff, I like to keep full personal control on my data and who has access to it.

So, for myself, all things cloud is a no go, but you will get other opinions to the contrary on that.

In the case of laptops, yes, external drives make a fine backup system, USB or a NAS can work depending on the software and what you are backing up..

You can get imaging software like Macrium reflect free that will make a "image" or "snapshot" of your entire PC hard drive. This basically backups up not only your data, but your OS and programs..

The advantage here is in case of drive failure, virus, malware or even in the event your gets hit by ransom ware you can simply reimage your hard drive and be back up and running in a matter of an hr or so..

Disadvantage of most imaging software is you may or may not be able to pick and choose what data to restore and your last image may not have had the most recent data..

But, in the light of MS Win10 update hack jobs, I highly recommend making entire drive image backups are a must.

Generally drive images are in a highly compressed form so unless you have your 2TB laptop completely full a 2TB external drive will fit multiple backups on it.

You can implement a two drive process, alternating the next backup image on the opposite external drive for safety, just rotate between the two drives..

If you want to up your game, then look for external USB drives which have two drives built in, make sure they are setup as a RAID 1 which is a mirrored set.. The drive enclosure will read and write those two drives at the same time.. This automatically creates a backup of your backup..

NAS is also a good choice, some NAS units have Multiple drives, Wifi on them and all with have a hard wired network connection.. You may need to study up on them to see how they may work for your situation and backing up via drive imaging may or may not be possible.. I haven't tried one those for that purpose. Be sure that if you go NAS that it can offer RAID 1 level for two drives and in the case of three or more RAID5 or higher..

RAID 5 requires 3 drives, data is split and striped across the drives with parity (helps with rebuilding the drive array). RAID 5 gives higher speed access with security of parity bit unlike RAID 0 (RAID 0 does data stripes but with no parity bit if one drive fails ALL data is lost). Downside of RAID 5 is you only get available space of tow of the three drives (which is why folks tend to use RAID 0)..

There are more RAID combos above RAID 5 but not all NAS units support those configurations..

Something else to consider is some NAS units have removable drive sleds.. Those are nice in the event of drive failure, pull the dead drive, insert new drive and the NAS will rebuild the drive array without the need to power down.

Perhaps I should start another thread but since you are on the subject of RAID, NAS etc., what is the best way to backup the laptop which travels in the camper for months at a time? I have been thinking of having two portable hard drives. I would copy an image to each?? The laptop has a 2TB SS drive.

garry1p wrote:

Kountryguy wrote:
When I insert an SD card, it is not recognized. If I remove it, restart and reinsert it, it is recognized. Any thoughts on how to correct this problem?

In simple terms when you "turn on" your PC it (computer) looks for the reader to see if it is there and ready.

When "you put" the SD card in the reader it sends an interrupt to the computer saying "look at me". Sounds to me like the interrupt signal is not always recognized by the computer and not a simple fix unless you are a tech.
On the other hand an SD card by a different manufacture may be a fix and worth a try.

Built in SD card readers ARE "USB" devices (they do not use a normal USB connection internally, instead they are either physically built on the MB or they are connected via a "header" connection but none the less they interface internally to a USB port hub).

USB ports have ZERO "hard interrupts", they are low priority devices. MB will randomly poll USB ports when there are open machine cycles..

HOWEVER, if it was in fact a GOOD reader AND good USB PORT/HUB then there would be ZERO REASON to reboot the PC.. All you have to do is WAIT a minute or two until the OS has the chance to poll.

This is not the case with the OPs issue.

I do not believe it is software (OS or driver related), it is most likely a hardware issue with the reader or USB port/hub failing and it is removed automatically by the OS when it fails..

If it has been removed by the OS due to hardware failure then a "reboot" may snap the reader back into working again.. TEMPORARILY.

Note that it may be a TEMPORARY "fix" at best, and chances are it may fail again while reading or writing to the card..

Any failure during reading or writing a SD card MAY result in data loss or corruption of the card data..

Recovering corrupted SD card data is not a certainty and you are taking chances by using it.

Card readers and USB ports/hubs DO FAIL.

While the OP can try different cards if they like, they DID plug their SD card into a DIFFERENT PC and are not having any trouble with that PC failing to see the card..

External USB card readers are a cheap fix to failing internal readers..

Thanks garry1p. I do not use it that much, so for now I will just restart each time and go from there.

Kountryguy wrote:
When I insert an SD card, it is not recognized. If I remove it, restart and reinsert it, it is recognized. Any thoughts on how to correct this problem?

In simple terms when you "turn on" your PC it (computer) looks for the reader to see if it is there and ready.

When "you put" the SD card in the reader it sends an interrupt to the computer saying "look at me". Sounds to me like the interrupt signal is not always recognized by the computer and not a simple fix unless you are a tech.
On the other hand an SD card by a different manufacture may be a fix and worth a try.