Here is a simple example for saving to a directory(external usb drive) using Python version 2.7.10 with Sublime Text 2 editor:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
X = np.linspace(-np.pi, np.pi, 256, endpoint = True)
C, S = np.cos(X), np.sin(X)
plt.plot(X, C, color = "blue", linewidth = 1.0, linestyle = "-")
plt.plot(X, S, color = "red", linewidth = 1.0, linestyle = "-")
plt.savefig("/Volumes/seagate/temp_swap/sin_cos_2.png", dpi = 72)