I got a flash drive, don't know what I'm doing
 

And I'm not kidding. I stick the stupid thing into the USB port, a little message appears on the bottom right of my screen telling me it recognizes a media storage device, so I get all excited.

I then go to MY COMPUTER and I can't find it anywhere.

I want to copy the MY DOCUMENTS folder and Alan's favorite places, and my Flip videos.

That's all I want to do. This is a 4G flash drive made by Sony.

I MUST be doing something wrong.

I tried going to google and typing "I can't find my flash drive and Windows doesn't recognize my Flash drive but when I click on any links it sends me to a Back Up data website.

So what exactly am I doing wrong?

I tried going to youtube but they all say to go to MY COMPUTER and it will appear, or some software will pop up.

Nothing happening here.

HELP!!!!

Melody

oohh ooohh. I took it out of the USB thingee and plugged it back in and a thing popped up saying it's REMOVABLE DISK K.

I assume that's my Flash Drive? I'm going to try copying and pasting SOMETHING.

Still trying to learn

lol

Melody

Mel,

If you right click on the start button (bottom left) and then click 'Explore', you should be able to find it there amongst your other drives.

http://bestsmileys.com/computer1/19.gif

OOOHHHHHH I think I did it!! I initially copied the WHOLE My Pictures folder. It was indicating 9 minutes remaining. I didn't want to do that anymore so I clicked cancel. I tried deleting the icon that said MY PICTURES in the K thing but it's telling me that this is a system file and if I delete it my computer won't run so I stopped. It's still there.

Can I safely delete the MY PICTURES folder from the Flash Drive? Very confusing when it tells you "this is a system file, blah blah". I want to make sure I'm not deleting anything off of my hard drive.

Okay, so now Melody knows how to use a Flash Drive.

I copied Alan's Favorite Places (I had put an icon to this on my desktop) because I knew eventually I would get a flash drive.

So I also tested copying a file from the My Documents folder. I copied a banana muffin recipe.

So I now have a 4G flash drive. Don't know exactly how much 4G means but is it a lot?

And I have a lot of Microsoft Word documents. I also have a lot of wordpad documents but when I go to MY DOCUMENTS, it shows them all as W files (meaning Microsoft word right?)

What if my new computer does not have Microsoft Word? How do I transfer Word documents?

I know I can copy and paste them into Wordpad. Right? Then I just copy the whole Wordpad??

Oh, and when I clicked on the ALAN'S FAVORITE PLACES thing in my Flash Drive (I wanted to see what would happen), a whole bunch of programs came ups asking me which one I wanted to use to open this folder.

so when I do buy the new computer and I stick the flash drive into a usb port, how do I get Alan's favorite places to go to his FAVORITE PLACES??

I know you guys can do this in your sleep and when I know what I'm doing, I'll be able to do this in my sleep too but THIS IS MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH FLASH DRIVES.

I don't want to accidentally delete ANYTHING.

Oh, this is so exciting I feel like I'm 20 years old.

ROFL.

Melody

As long as you used COPY & not MOVE - it should be fine to delete the files on the flash drive .

You can double check first by making sure the files ares still located on your computer systems hard drive.

If you know where they usually are just find it and make sure or use the search tool.

Unplug the flash drive so when the files are found - you will know it isn't the ones on the flash drive.

4G - it's the same way they measure hard drives - like a 350 G hard drive 4G should hold most of your docs & pic/videos- if it gets full it will let you know.

Some of the USB drives have a compression program on them so it compresses the files to get more on it.

"when I clicked on the ALAN'S FAVORITE PLACES thing in my Flash Drive (I wanted to see what would happen), a whole bunch of programs came ups asking me which one I wanted to use to open this folder."
just pick IE or Firefox which ever one he uses.


Word docs-
There is a free program called Open Office - it will convert & open Word docs
http://www.openoffice.org/

Okay, let's see if I have this right.

My flash drive thing is not plugged in. I just checked and all the MY PICTURES and the MY DOCUMENTS are still there, so I can safely hit the delete button in the Flash Drive, right?

And when I get my new computer, and I plug in the flash drive and I click on Alan's favorites, and a thingee pops up, I will select either IE or Mozilla..right??

And when I get the new computer, and it does not have Microsoft Word, I just go online, download this Open Office software, install it on my computer, and then I plug in the Flash Drive, select the My Documents option and a thing will pop up asking me where I want to put it AND I'LL SEE OPEN OFFICE and I'll select it?? Did I get this right?

See, I CAN LEARN STUFF!!!

lol

Oh, this is so funny!!

Melody
And Thanks much

[And when I get the new computer, and it does not have Microsoft Word, I just go online, download this Open Office software, install it on my computer, and then I plug in the Flash Drive, select the My Documents option and a thing will pop up asking me where I want to put it AND I'LL SEE OPEN OFFICE and I'll select it?? Did I get this right?]

All you would need to do before or after installing open office - is just copy the documents file over to the new computer in the My documents folder
Just like the same place it was on the old computer, only it will be on the new one & the copy still on the flash drive.

When you start Open Office, or even Word Pad - you might test Word Pad now before you do any changes - open a doc with word pad -I haven't tried it . I don't have any word docs to test it with.
It did open another file type.

When you start Open Office - then in the menu bar select Open and it will pop up a box where you can find the file or document that you want to open.
but you may not even need it if Word Pad does the job.

Okay, I have one more final question.

Let's say I buy the new computer, get it home, plug it in and I'm ready to go. I then plug in the flash drive, it comes up in Drive K I would assume, and I want to put Alan's favorites on the hard drive.

Do I use the copy feature, or the move feature.

I really am not sure how I get stuff from the flash drive over to the hard drive.

If I'm dragging and dropping, let's say I want to put the contents of the my documents folder (from the flash drive) into the my documents folder of my new hard drive. (and the same for Alan's favorites)

Exactly how do I do this.

I'm trying to figure this out. I imagine myself plugging the flash drive into the new computer, the screen pops up and I can see the folder named Alan's favorites.

I then right click on the MY FAVORITES thing and I gather I'm given various options. Like copy, or move.

Exactly what do I do next?

NOW I'LL GO QUIETLY!!!

lol

Melody

Use copy - that way you always have the spares if needed again on the usb drive.

some videos about flash drive use-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_6bItL_cKY

basically you just reverse the process from copying the files to the flash drive . Quite a few ways to move files -
You can do the 2 window approach and drag and drop into the correct location.
Or you can highlight the file & right click - send to or copy & paste
Or you can highlight the file - then go up to the Menu bar & select Copy to Folder and then a box will open up with a list of places - you select the place and off it goes.


wherever you got the favorites or any file from that's where they would go back on the new computer.
I usually do a backup of my bookmarks /favorites and save it in My documents - so that is probably where to put Alans stuff.

So I should put Alan's stuff in the My Documents folder on the new computer? Alan uses Mozilla, so I gather if the new computer does not come with Mozilla, but comes with IE, then I would go on IE, go to Mozilla, download Firefox, and then (see, this is where i get confused).

Once I know I have Mozilla on my computer, Alan will want to see all his favorite places. So I gather that if I did what you said I would go to My Documents, find the folder named Alan's Favorites (it's a folder, right?) and then I would double click on it and it would prompt me to open with something and then I choose Mozilla Firefox?

Did I get this part right?

Good Lord, one would think I know how to do this but I don't.

Thanks, Melody

P.S. One more question.

Can't I get the new computer, download Firefox, then insert the Flash drive, find Alan's favorites, click on it, and it would prompt me to open it using SOMETHING?? Is that when I could choose Mozilla?

Do I have anything right here?

lol
Thanks

FF usually asks during installing if you want to import favs or bookmarks that is one way you can do it.


I usually install FF - start it, then go to organize bookmarks under the bookmarks menu - use the import /back up/restore to put the bookmarks into the new FF.

And where are you importing them FROM???

See, I pay attention.

I CAN do this!!!

lol
Melody

from your My documents file- where you had copied them to from the flash drive onto the new pc.

[So I should put Alan's stuff in the My Documents folder on the new computer?] yes.

We can always take you thru it when the time comes.

If the files came from the old pc - My documents - then they go back to My documents on the new pc.

Got a GOOD ONE for you!!!

I wanted to copy the contents of the MY DOCUMENTS folder onto the Flash drive. I thought I would be copying DOCUMENTS. You know, my microsoft word documents and my wordpad documents.

Well!!! I do the copy and paste into the Flash Drive and it's showing me that it's copying and I see the minutes that it is indicating and it goes from 27 to 52 to (changing every second). I said "okay, it's supposed to do that"

Then, because it is showing me what it is copying, I see "my pictures, all the jpegs, etc, and lots of other stuff being copied.

I said outloud: "why is it copying the my pictures folder?"

Then after about 10 minutes it tells me 'your flashdrive is full, insert another flash drive"

So here's what I want to know.

If I plug in my flash drive and I click on the My Documents folder that has just been copied (but that it can't contain EVERYTHING), what exactly is there?

Half of my "my documents" folder???

I'm going to check it anyway, but all I really wanted were the DOCUMENTS, not the other stuff.

I gather I need to get another flash drive?

Should I get a 8 gig one this time? I now have a 4 gig one.

Questions, questions.

And we had an earthquake here so NO WONDER I HAVE QUESTIONS.

lol
Melody

P.S. I just went into the Flash drive and opened up the My Documents folder. I saw the "my pictures", "my videos", "my music" and "downloads"

so I just learned that the My Documents folder has all these other things besides documents.

I then deleted all nonsense from this folder. So now I have what I want when I want to copy the contents of the Flash Drive's MY Documents folder.

I when I get the new computer, I simply copy the My Documents Folder from the Flash drive, and I paste it into the My Documents Folder on the hard drive right?

Will I be prompted with : 'Do you want to replace the My Documents folder?"

or will it just copy the contents into the My Documents folder on the new PC?

Thanks VERY much.

You're very patient and I thank you heartily

Melody

Oh, one more thing I want to get clear.

I wanted to see how the Organize Bookmarks worked.
So I brought it up on my computer. I saw where it gives you the options to import and export.

I clicked on Import and then I chose IMPORT HTML, clicked on okay and it brought me to a menu where I saw all the files and I gather I choose 'MY DOCUMENTS, and then I find BOOKMARKS, and then I hit okay?

did I get this right?

I want to get all my ducks in a row.

So I just want to know what the final steps are after Import HTML.

Thanks my dear

Melody

hope that helps

Absolutely And thanks very very much.

Oh, one more pick of your brain. I had initially thought I would go to Staples and get the new pc.

Today, as I was coming out of Waldbaums and walking home (which is quite a walk or a short bus ride), I noticed a computer store. I walked in and saw various desktops, etc. I asked the guy "oh you sell desktops and monitors"?

He said sure. So I asked some questions and he has desktops and monitors (19inch) that start at $400. Windows 7 and he said "I can put Microsoft word on it for you).

So for $400 and maybe a bit extra for more ram, instead of going all the way to Staples, I could just walk in this place and buy the computer and load it on my carry thing and lug it home.

So do you think Staples is better or buying it this way? I have usually purchased my computers from computer stores and never had a problem. And the reason I'd really like to do it this way is I can get there much easier than going to Staples (god forbid something goes wrong).

Oh, the hard drive was 500 gigs.

He can probably do better.

I'm just getting all my info before I make the final commitment.

Thanks, Melody

Were these totally new computers - from known brands - acer, hp, compaq, etc?
or were they ones he built himself? Or rebuilt/ refurbished?
- which is fine - but could be cut rate parts inside or quality parts- hard to tell unless he gives you some info & paperwork about the inside parts...

what kind of warranty? - would he provide repairs himself if needed?
does the place look legit or shady/fly by night?

you'd have to compare the CPU speed - the ram - the drive size
it would be nice to know the brand of motherboard that is inside if they are self built.. Intel, MSI, ASUS...

Not to worry. I'm printing out what you wrote. I'm going to go back and ask him questions and write everything down. THEN I'll run it all by you.

But right now we are preparing for a hurricane so I'm not going anywhere this weekend. Probably next week this will all be done.

Oh my god, first we have an earthquake and now we are preparing for Hurricane Irene.

Will update when I have more info.

Love ya

Melody

Be safe - it looks like it will get to NY area Sunday -

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical...1109_5day.html

Well, I am like a girl scout. I have my Grab and Go Bag right by the door in case the National Guard comes and evacuates us. I have radio and batteries and meds and hygiene products and everything the Red Cross said to put in a Grab and Go bag.

I am also putting my living room couches AGAINST the front windows (which will hold the verticals in place), so if the WIND does blow inwards, the glass will go against verticals. (hopefully anyway).

I'm glad we didn't buy the new computer yet.

Good Grief

Melody

I'm such a worrier.

Jo, I'm wondering if Melody and her hubby would have been evacuated?

Nope!!! If Melody lived in Coney Island, then Melody would have been evacuated. Thankfully, I live in Bensonhurst and it's raining like Niagara Falls and the hurricane hasn't even reached us yet.

They say it will hit about 3 a.m. and will be VERY BAD.

Good Lord

And I thought putting Duct tape on my windows would do ANYTHING??

Oh My God!!

lol
Melody

So if you don't hear from me after tomorrow, some helicopter came and rescued us.

I'll be the one standing on the roof with my Flip Video camera RECORDING EVERYTHING.

Ahhh, there you are.

Thinking of you!