External Hard Drives

Hello, I have several questions related to external hard drives.  I have a Western Digital External that is about 4 years old and recently I have gotten a blue screen on Startup that tells me I am having a problem with G Drive which is where the external shows up.  I assumed this meant that it was turning up its toes in the near future so I purchased a Western Digital Passport Essential 250GB External HD. 
1.  Can I run 2 external HD at the same time?  The old one is FAT and I am assuming the new one is also.  2.  If that is possible can information be transferred from one external HD to another external HD?
3.  I attempted to disconnect the old HD and when I clicked on the icon on the Taskbar I got the following message:  The device 'Generic volume' cannot be stopped right now.  Try stopping the device again later.
My old external HD is plugged into my power strip as well as the computer, however, the new one only has to be plugged into a USB slot and there is nothing on it that appears to require external power.  Thanks, Carol D.    

1.  Can I run 2 external HD at the same time?  

Yes.

2.  If that is possible can information be transferred from one external HD to another external HD?

Sure.  Just open Windows Explorer and drag folders and/or files from one HD to the  other.  You may find opening two instances of Windows Explorer easier to work with than one.

Dear Soybean,
    Thanks so much for sharing.  I only hope that someday I will be able to help other folks as much as
this board has helped me in the past.
                   Thanks, Carol D.

Yup, you can run 2 HHD in one time.