More than one external USB drive-how to identify?

[shokan2]

Had this problem for ages. I've got two sometimes four Western Digital My Passport external drives connected. In Safely Remove, how can I tell which one is which? "WD My Passport 0740" is the name of one in Safely Remove. The other is "...0748". On the back plate of the drives, no such ID # exists, just S/N and P/N. In the past, to get around this, I just shut down and unhook the drive I don't want. How to identify which is which in Safely Remove?

edit: Also, are 0740 and 0748 assignations that stick with the hardware when connected on any PC? Or, is it a system assignation that might be different on another machine? ie are these port numbers, not the drives?

 

[PSCO2007]

I simply set the policy to quick removal and don't bother with the icon on desktop.

 

[shokan2]

I simply set the policy to quick removal and don't bother with the icon on desktop.

Where is that? Here, I see:

Safely Remove > right click Open Devices and Printers > My Passport Properties (only General and Hardware tabs) > under Hardware tab, highlight WD My Passport > click bottom right Properties button > WD My Passport 0748 Device Properties > only General, Volumes, Driver, and Details tabs ...no "Policies" like in your screenshot.

 

[PSCO2007]

Go to Dev Mgr and expand dvd drives.

Right click on external hdd and click Properties.

You will see Policies.

 

[whs]

Another option is to give each disk a different name - in Computer (highlight and right click).

 

[jumanji]

Apart from a unique drive label as aforesaid by whs, I also stick a label on the external HDDs indicating the unique drive label so that when I plug out , I plug out the right external HDD.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Another option is to give each disk a different name - in Computer (highlight and right click).

That's an excellent option most of the time, especially if the drive is physically labeled as jumanji suggested. However, I use a folder/file syncing program for making backups that is set to use the drive name instead of the drive letter to determine the external drive to sync to. Since I make multiple backups, all my external backup drives have to have the same name (although each drive has a unique physical label).