External HD/Vista Issue

New here, desperate for help. Normally, I google computer problems and solve them on my own, but I am working on my mother's computer (with Vista) and I am not having any success.

Problem - She is using an external hard drive that she wishes to remain portable between two computers at different addresses and does not want to have to keep plugged in all the time. The Vista computer - laptop - gives an error message every time you open "My Computer" or Explorer or with any attempt to access drives (saving files, etc) if the external hard drive is NOT plugged in.

The message reads:
[F:\Linda's Documents\Desktop refers to a location that is unavailable]...and so on.

If the external hard drive is plugged in, the message doesn't show.

What she would like to be able to do is use the external hard drive occasionally and not have this message come up every time she turns the computer on or accesses Windows Explorer and it is not plugged in.

Please advise.

 

Does the same thing happen if you right-click on the external HD and chose "safely remove" before you unplug it?

 

Does the external drive show as the same drive letter on both PC's?

By that I mean, does it show as "F" drive on both PC"s?

Bazza

 

Yes, the same thing happens.

 

No.

The drive is "J" on the desktop, which is actually networked and shared with the laptop. The laptop recognizes the "J" drive when the ext hd is connected to the desktop, but consistently gives this message when the ext hd isn't directly connected to the laptop. The only way to prevent it is to keep the ext hd plugged into the laptop, which isn't feasible.

 

If it was me, first up, I'd make sure the external drive was tagged with the same drive letter no matter what computer it was plugged into. Simplifies troubleshooting and might just solve your problem. Pick a letter way down the alphabet like W, X, Y or Z. My $0.02

I have a 10 gig pocket sized microdrive that I have tagged as "T" for Ten gigs, that I use for downloads and troubleshooting other peoples PC's. It hasn't conflicted with anyone elses PC yet.

Bazza

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Well, I disabled everything from startup, except the OS and I still get the error message. I'm "testing" it by opening My Computer.

I actually tried renaming the disk to J - the same letter as it is on the network and then I had J and F - so still essentially the same problem.

I will try renaming them both to something else lower down the alphabet and update here. Thanks again for your help so far.