external hard disk

Hi

i'm not that bright with technical stuff and would like to know if i transfer some data (pictures, folders eg) from one (old) pc on to an external hard disk and later from the external to a new pc...is all the data still on the external as well as on the pc :confused:

cheers
kaumea

Hi Kaumea - a cheap, easy option would be to use a flashdrive (USB stick thingy) to copy from your old PC if you have a USB port on it - they come with large gigs these days and you can get them in lots of places. You can still keep the old data on the flashdrive.

If you copy the data it will remain in the old location, if you cut and paste, or select & move the data, it won't.
Drag and drop can be either copy or move. For an explanation of when it does each for windows 7, see here
and for Vista see here .

try using google drive or something similar. It is free, no need for an external drive or USB stick and it means you can access the files from both PCs, your tablet, or even your phone should you so wish and you all access exactly the same copy, so versions do not get out of sync

i already shifted picture folders and many other stuff on to the external...and i really really don't want to lose the pictures, that's why i asked if they will still remain on the external before i do anything...

I found a thing called "windows easy transfer" and there it asks if it (windows easy transfer) has already saved my files from the old pc onto an external or flash drive :confused: i didn't saved it with that program, i did it like just saving what i wanted to keep...

[:0] learning all this new computer stuff ... and it was so easy and nice before...

forgot to mention it's from XP to Windows 8.1...

kai;488787 wrote: try using google drive or something similar. It is free, no need for an external drive or USB stick and it means you can access the files from both PCs, your tablet, or even your phone should you so wish and you all access exactly the same copy, so versions do not get out of sync

That depends on having a really big data cap and good speed of transfer, if you're backing up a lot of photos.

I have a 1T and a 2T drive here and regularly back-up photos in case the computer crashes. There's no way I'd be able to put those "into the cloud" on a slow (relatively) connection.

i have no idea how much storage is on this "black box" ? I have only the letters WD on it and some other written stuff that makes no sense to me...

if you have it plugged in to you PC, using windows explorer (NB not internet explorer) you will be able to see it and if you right click it and choose properties it will show you how much space you have on it and how much space is already used.

Download SyncToy, you can then mirror whats in one drive onto another and when you need to do a backup it will find the differences and copy them over, it's also free.

Kaumea, it can be very simple...

Depending on how much data you have to copy, you can get a reasonably cheap external hard drive that just plugs into your computer and you copy (not move) your files across.

If you want to load onto a new computer, you can copy (not move) your files from the external hard drive to the new computer, and a copy will save onto your new computer as well as stay on the external hard drive.

Good to get into the habit of doing this regularly as a back up to what is on your computer in case it goes haywire on you...

Dick Smiths or any similar place will have external hard drives, nice and small and well priced.

I prefer this to 'cloud storage' as I can access it even if no internet...and it is 'physically' mine not in...the ether, as it were!

it worked thanks reggit.... I needed something very simple

kaumea;488876 wrote: it worked thanks reggit.... I needed something very simple

You and me both...I am a Luddite at heart []