COPY FILES FROM COMPUTER TO YOUR FLASH DRIVE

With so many of our students preparing to return to "cooler climates" making sure you copy your folders of documents, music, photos, etc onto a portable drive or flash drive is always a good idea (great way to back-up just in case)... so here's a reminder on how to do that quickly and easily... Safe Travels....

• Open Windows Explorer/My Computer to see which drives are shown – easiest way to do this is hold down the Windows Flag Key + E .

• Insert flash drive in the USB port, it will appear as “removable drive” or indicate the company name (Removable Disk (G)

• In Windows XP - Open MY DOCUMENTS & Select the files or folders you want to copy to flash drive by left-clicking on them. To copy multiple, hold the CTRL key while you click & select all the files to save.

• In Windows Vista & Windows 7 - Open LIBRARIES; then Open Each of the Cabinets you want to copy –My Pictures, My Music, My Movies, My Pictures; Select the files or folders you want to copy to your flash drive by left-clicking on them. To copy multiple, hold the CTRL key while you click folders or files at random; Or hold the SHIFT key to copy GROUPS of folders OR hold the CTRL + A to copy all folders in the parent folder…

• Once highlighted…. RIGHT-CLICK on the folders you want to copy (or go to Menu Bar & Edit) and choose COPY.

• Go to “My Computer”; choose the correct Drive you want to copy your work/files/folders to; highlight that drive (i.e. "Removable Disk (G:),

• RIGHT-CLICK on the Drive (or go to Menu Bar & Edit); choose PASTE

• When the copying is finished, DO NOT IMMEDIATELY REMOVE THE FLASH DRIVE OR PORTABLE HARD DRIVE FROM THE USB PORT :
Always left-click on the REMOVE HARDWARE icon located in the System Tray to be sure it says: SAFELY REMOVE STORAGE DEVICE. 

Error Message: Windows-No Disk

Question: I am getting a error message a lot lately: “WINDOWS-NO DISK” pops up on the monitor and it makes no difference what I’m working on or have open and it happens several times a day…

Answer: Tech support forums and sites (including Microsoft) indicate that this is common (more so with Windows XP & Vista) than Windows 7. THe following is the solution, copied directly from Microsoft’s website at the following link:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-system/windows-no-disk-exception-processing-message/b1a67525-d5e8-46ae-9801-6b169547e656

"The answer lies in the words "Windows: No Disk", your PC is looking for a USB device - e.g. a USB stick or a cell phone - that you've recently plugged in and have removed without using the "remove hardware safely" option in the right hand bottom corner of your screen. Put the last USB device you used back into the USB port and then use the "remove software safely" option.

The pop up message will disappear."

In my case, I didn't have to plug the USB device in, I just needed to click on the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the system tray, and tell it to remove the device that is no longer plugged in.