Sometimes when installing a Flash Drive into a computer, I see the message of something along the lines of a Driver being installed and the Flash Drive then being ready.
Anyway, there’s a reason I’m wondering whether Flash Drives would work properly in their entirety in Safe Mode.
Yesterday I went to use the computer of one of my nieces. I encountered errors and problems immediately. Even a reboot just hung there. I thought, “Awww MAN! My niece is gonna say a broke her computer.”
But, after messing with it a while, I finally saw the evidence. There was an obvious message that the Hard Drive was FULL. I went and double checked and sure enough … the 177 Gig Hard Drive was FULL. I believe it indicated something like 124 KBytes left of Free Space! Yikes!
I informed my niece of the situation with her computer. We checked and just with Pictures and Music alone, that took 100 Gig. I told my niece that she’d have to get herself a 128 Gig Flash Drive and get her Pictures and Music out of the Hard Drive and onto said Flash Drive.
ANY task I tried to do was very SLOW because of the lack of Hard Drive Free Space breathing room. So, I’m wondering … wouldn’t even the copying of stuff from the Hard Drive onto a Flash Drive be SLOW because of the lack of Hard Drive Free Space? Or with such Red Alert lack of HD Free Space, isn’t there even a possibility that copying onto a Flash Drive would NOT be possible? If so, could the copying stuff onto a Flash Drive operation be done in Safe Mode so as to make things work more smoothly and not as slowly? Or would a Flash Drive NOT work in Safe Mode?
Hi Chim, yes, flash drives should work normally in Windows safe mode (except maybe for some hardware accelerators). They do on XP, anyway. If the internal HDD is nearly full, it will be much slower transferring data to another drive as Windows has literally crammed data into every free space it could find, resulting in a very fragmented drive. You will have to move some data off the HDD to defragment, as you are doing. Immediately after the defrag, I recommend a full checkdisk, also.
Window XP is what my niece’s computer has. So that’s good then.
Yeah, Simion, I am already expecting that it IS going to be a VERY slow and long process to copy around 100 Gig onto a Flash Drive. I’ve never remotely copied that much data onto a Flash Drive. I have 3 backup copies of my stuff on 3 Flash Drives and that is comprised of only around 8 Gig on each Flash Drive. My niece’s computer has right around the same specs as my computer. (Not very fast, powerful nor state-of-the-art.) Thus, I’m expecting that it will take several hours.
Yeah, I told my niece that with her Hard Drive being full, an HD Defrag, backing up stuff onto CDs or DVDs was at that instant most assuredly NOT possible. I added that, “Heck, at this point … not much of ANYTHING is possible. The absolute 1st step is that we need to get some breathing room in the Hard Drive so that Windows can get back to working properly.”
Oh, I’m sure it’s going to need more maintenance than just getting some breathing room. I’ll toss MBAM, SAS, AdwCleaner, CCleaner at it and do whatever else needs to be done. I saw Norton Anti-Virus in it, but I don’t know if it’s even active. Even if it is, she’s probably never run a manual scan.
Hi, I think you will find transferring data to a flash drive (especially a 2.0) to be a slow process.Using a 3.0 Flash drive and if it’s connected to a usb 3.0 port you would probably see some speed improvements.There is good,better,best when buying flash drives apparently.
Please see this chart, http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/usb-thumb-drive-charts/Copy-Benchmark-Images-Write,2301.html
Your niece could probably buy a 500 GB usb hard drive for the same or less money of the 128 GB flash drive.
She used to have a USB External Hard Drive. She doesn’t have it anymore. I don’t know if it broke or what.
The idea of a USB External Hard Drive did enter my mind the other day. But, as choking as the computer was, I just figured (right or wrong) that a Flash Drive would be the option more likely to work, albeit not a fast option.
I WILL advise her that once we get her computer running again, that she get herself another USB External Hard Drive or at least a 2nd Flash Drive. I wouldn’t want her to have just one backup copy of her 100 Gig of pictures and music.
Okay … will USB 3.0 Flash Drives work on USB 2.0 port computers?
And what about USB 3.0 External Hard Drives? Would THOSE work on USB 2.0 port computers?
Cuz on my quick search, I think I saw more USB 3.0 USB External Hard Drives than USB 2.0 ones.
Ahhhhh, alrighty then. That’s good to know.
Then that means I already incorrectly told my niece yesterday that whatever 128 Gig Flash Drive she wound up getting … it HAD to be a USB 2.0 because a USB 3.0 wouldn’t work in her probably 7-year old computer. Doh! Ehhh, on the plus side, she’ll save money by getting a USB 2.0 Flash Drive.