Not good, apparently you're on someone's list? The external drive, by "unplug" I meant disconnect it from the computer, turn it off also. If you leave it connected, the files might as well be on the main disk? SD cards or usb sticks are good also. Copying to the laptop, not sure if that's actually "offline" unless there's no wifi. I wouldn't trust anything with an operating system in it, look at what happened with the WD My Book drives recently.
Not good, apparently you're on someone's list? The external drive, by "unplug" I meant disconnect it from the computer, turn it off also. If you leave it connected, the files might as well be on the main disk? SD cards or usb sticks are good also. Copying to the laptop, not sure if that's actually "offline" unless there's no wifi. I wouldn't trust anything with an operating system in it, look at what happened with the WD My Book drives recently.