[Leica] External Hard Drives

[Frank Filippone]

There are several problems that I can see going on...

A UPS (UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER SUPPLY) works this way..... It brings in power from your house wiring, and turns that power into stored (saved) power in 
a battery,  It then turns the battery power into a signal that your computer ( or any other household item) can use.  It is ALWAYS WORKING.  You are 
ALWAYS working off the battery.  The battery is always being charged.  When house power goes off, then the battery is not being charged but it is 
still producing power for your computer.  When the battery is out of power, your computer will be effectively starved and it will not work.  ( Until 
you supply house power again and the battery is charged.)

Yes,, the APC (UPS) is/are not functioning.  They have an internal battery which can easily be replaced.  Take about 5 minutes,  Replace the battery.. 
batteries.  ( This is required every 2-4 years IME)

The fact that your HDD work at all tells me the UPS is probably not dead.  It most likely has a bad battery.  Tell me the model of the APC brand UPS 
and I will tell you which battery to buy.... usually Amazon has these cheaply available.  If your UPS is not good enough ( powerful enough or does not 
have a USB connection) any more, then you should install a bigger or newer unit.

NOTE :  When a properly setuo UPS has lost house power,, it usually makes a terribly annoying and loud noise as a warning.  If it did not make this 
noise, your SW setup is WRONG.  See next paragraphs.

If you are buying a NEW UPS, get one with a USB cable that allows the computer to talk to the UPS and controls the UPS intelligently.  Most UPS above 
the 500W level will have this but check.

Your SW setup of the UPS is wrong.  These things come with a setup that allows the user to choose HOW MUCH TIME of no house power to allow before the 
UPS goes on battery power only.  I set mine for 2-5 minutes.  BUT THIS IS DETERMINED BY HOW MANY AND TYPES OF PERIPHERALS YOU WISH TO PLUG INTO the 
UPS.  You should plug in the computer plus and external HDD you use plus any power you need for peripherals... NOT THE PRINTER!  Your monitor probably 
should be plugged in, but it is optional  The more you have depending on the UPS the less time the UPS should wait before going on Battery.

Your external HDD are not setup correctly.  This is why the drive letters are changing.  This can be fixed in a few minutes.  You use Windows.  
Probably WIndows 10 or 11.  The setup of your external HDD should be setup to include a name and a drive letter.  YOU need to establish these, the 
computer will not do this on its own.  Too detailed for this group, but I can walk you through this to make it work right.

To summarize:

Replace UPS battery (batteries). Cost is in the $20-50 range each.

Fix the UPS installation SW to establish time for house wiring to go out and when the UPS goes on battery power only.  Make sure the AC POWER FAILURE 
setup is set correctly.

Fix the USB HDD name assignments.... If you wish, I can give you my phone number and we can do it together once the rest is done.

Frank Filippone
BMWRed735i at Gmail.com

On 5/3/2024 6:30 AM, Tina Manley via LUG wrote:
> I looked up my APC and the warranty expired last year.  Of course, it
> quit.  I've ordered a new one that will be here tomorrow.
>
> Thanks, everybody.
>
> Tina
>
>
> On Fri, May 3, 2024 at 12:09 PM Don Dory<don.dory at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>> In fairness my external drives are plugged into an APC and have not had
>> problems.  However, I have also named my drives rather than letters and the
>> names have stuck in an OS universe.
>>
>> On Fri, May 3, 2024, 9:45 AM Tina Manley via LUG<lug at leica-users.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> LUG:
>>>
>>> Every time the power goes out, as it did this morning, when it comes back
>>> on all of my 7 external hard drives have changed their designation letter
>>> arbitrarily.  It really messes up my LR catalog and takes hours to fix.
>>>
>>> Current (G) becomes Current (J) and all photos in LR have to be "found"
>>> again.
>>>
>>> Is there any way to permanently assign these designations so they don't
>>> change??
>>>
>>> TIA
>>>
>>> Tina
>>>
>>> --
>>> https://tinamanley.photoshelter.com/index
>>> https://pbase.com/tinamanley
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> Seehttp://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug  for more information
>>>