How to Copy Data From One Hard Drive to Another

You need to get documents from your work PC to your home PC. Or maybe you just bought a shiny new computer and you don't want to lose all of the data on your old computer. Whatever the reason, you want to copy data from one hard drive to another.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• External hard drive

1. Purchase and external hard drive. Hard drives are becoming cheaper daily. Buy one with as much space as you can afford.
2. Install the external hard drive on the source computer. Some external hard drives include installation software but most are recognized as drives when you plug their USB cables into your computer. On Windows computers, it will show up as the first available drive letter under "My Computer."
3. Copy all of the files you want to keep to the external hard drive.
4. Remove the external hard drive from the source computer. If you are taking it home, don't put it in the same bag as your lunch leftovers.
5. Install the external hard drive on the destination computer.
6. Copy the files to your computer.

Tips & Warnings

• For easy transfers, keep all of your import data in one place on your computer, such as the My Documents folder on Windows machines.
• Consider using an online storage site like Xdrive. Just upload your files from one computer and download them from the other.
• Another alternative is to use remote connection software like GoToMyPC.
• Always safely remove external hard drives. For example, use the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature found in the Windows system tray.