Copy Files to an External Hard Drive

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Whether for backup, transfer, or just making space on your main hard drive, there are times when we want to move files to an external drive. These are inexpensive, and available online and at many computer and electronics stores. In addition, storage on thumb drives, and even the cloud, have made external storage easier than ever. We'll show you how to do it.

Steps

External Disc Drive

  1. Connect your external drive. If it's not already connected, follow the manufacturer's instructions. There may be settings or hardware configurations that need to be addressed for your computer.
    • Most external devices these days are plug-and-play, so it should just be a matter of connecting the drive to your computer with the USB cable, plugging it in, and turning it on.
    • You may need to install drivers or other required software as well. There may be a disk included with the package, or you can find the most up-to-date drivers online, at the manufacturer's website.
  2. Plug it in. If your external hard drive requires an external power source (ie. it needs more power than what can be delivered over USB or Firewire), plug it into an electrical outlet with the AC power adaptor provided with your external hard drive.
    • Connect the drives' data cable to the device and your computer.
  3. Turn on the drive. If your external device has a power switch, turn it on now. Wait while your device is recognized and initialized.
    • Your external hard drive will show up on the My Computer screen (Windows) or on the Desktop (Macintosh) just like any other hard drive.
  4. Move your files. You can either drag and drop or copy and paste the files you wish to back up on your external hard drive.

Thumb Drive

  1. Insert the thumb drive into the USB port. Depending on how the thumb drive is formatted, and your operating system and hardware, you may need to initialize the drive. Your OS will guide you through the necessary procedures.
  2. Copy your files. The thumb drive should appear as a normal disk on the My Computer screen (Windows) or on the Desktop (Macintosh), like any other hard drive.
    • Drag and drop, or copy and paste the files you wish to move onto the external drive.
    • Note: this method is the same for the newer generation high-capacity flash drives

Cloud Drive

  1. Sign in or sign up. Advances in bandwidth and cloud-based storage have made this method a very good (and very cost-effective) method for copying files. Services such as Dropbox, iCloud, and Evernote offer inexpensive to free external storage.
    • For example, Dropbox gives you 2.5GB for free. It's not quite as fast as a connected drive, but has the advantage of being able to access your files from any device, anywhere in the world—as long as you're connected to the Internet.
  2. Create a folder. Each cloud device handles this a little differently, but the basics are still the same. We'll use Dropbox for this tutorial.
    • Click on the New folder icon, and name your new folder.
    • Drag and drop the files you wish to save, into the new folder.
    • Your file is now available anywhere. Furthermore, you can share the folder with colleagues, family members, or anybody else you wish to share a file with.

Google Drive

  1. Sign in or sign up. Sign in to your Google account or create a new one. There are 2 major advantages of this method: majority of people already have a Google account, plus capacity of Google Drive is 15 GB.
  2. Click the “Options” button while signed in and select “Drive” from the opened grid.
  3. Pay attention to the left side of the screen. Click the arrow button as seen on the screenshot and select “Files...” to upload a file from your computer to Google Drive.
  4. When the file is uploaded, you'll see a message in the bottom right of your page. Since now on you can permanently access this file through your Google account. Click “Share” to select the way of sharing the file.
  5. In the opened window you can select the method of sharing. If you want a direct link to the file that you can send to anyone you wish – click the “Get shareable link” button. If the file should be sent to a certain person – enter this person's email into the field below.

Video

Tips

  • If you have a lot of data to backup, and portability is not an issue, get an external hard drive. If you do not have much to back up and you want to carry it around easily, get a USB memory stick (a.k.a. thumb drive).
  • Back up important files regularly. If you can't afford to lose it, you should always keep a backup copy of it.
  • Know whether or not you have USB, Firewire, or other data ports on your computer. In the unlikely event that you don't, you may have to buy a USB or Firewire card to put into your computer to use an external hard drive.

Warnings

  • Not backing up data is a dangerous decision, and adverse consequences may result from it if actions are not taken to back up your data.

Things You'll Need

  • External Hard Drive (or hard drive enclosure and an extra hard drive)
  • Available USB / Firewire port

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