about using a external hard drive to back up data?

Question

I was just wondering how you can back up your data on an external hard drive. Tech support and the people that I bought it from told me that you just drag and drop your files without burning or writing onto external hard drive. can it be that easy? Are you sure there is no other thing you need to do, just drag and drop? Can someone please clear this up for me? does anybody know?

Answer 1

I use an external hard drive to back up my data, and all I have to do is find the files I want, hit copy, go into the external hard drive through My Computer, and hit paste.

It's not like burning a CD, you can use the external hard drive the same way you would the main hard drive for your computer (creating folders, copying and pasting files, etc).

I also use a program called SyncBack:
http://www.download.com/SyncBack/3000-2242_4-10548273.html?tag=lst-0-1

I can use it to copy an entire folder, or my entire hard drive, to the external drive. And then later, I can have it re-copy only the files that have changed, and new files I've created since the last time I ran the program.

Answer 2

I got two different external drives.
Yes it is true that just by drag n drop or by copy command you can do it. There is another way to use backup software.

This is the easy way. Suppose your external drive is "F" or "H" right. Your computer hard drive where you got data is "C". You want to back up data from "C" drive to "F" or "H" external drive.
First in the external drive suppose in My document/My Music/My Picture what ever your need is make a folder which you can recognize as a back up. Again suppose you want to copy data then in external drive's My document create a folder My backup.

Now click on the My back up folder it will open but it will be empty because there is not any data right? keep it open. Now back to your computer hard drive locate My document folder select the file open it. Now two windows are open, Top one is C drive's My document, bottom one is external drives My Back up.

Here you minimize the C drive's window now you can see the window below that is external drive's. Put cursor on the file you want to back up and drag and drop on external drive's My back up folder and it done.

If you got several use (paint that)ctrl+click then drag n drop all.

Other method choose file or file from menu choose Move or copy to the respective folder in to external drive.

Hope this will help you

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