How to Backup Files to a USB Flash Drive

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By eveewonder
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Back Up Your Files to A USB Drive

Backing up files on your hard drive to an external USB flash drive is easy. Follow these steps to easily back up files and avoid losing them in a hard drive crash. For purposes of this article I will assume you are using Windows XP. If you are using a different operating system the steps will be similar but could vary.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

USB Floppy Drive

Step 1

Make sure your USB Flash Drive is large enough to accommodate what you want to save. If you only want to save certain files from the hard drive to the flash drive go to the folder that contains the files you want to save, right click on the folder, and view properties. This will tell you the size of the contents of your folder.
Step 2

Connect your USB flash drive to your PC or laptop.
Step 3

Choose the files to back up to the flash drive by using the right mouse button to click the Start button and choosing Explore. This will show all of the drives and files on your computer. You should see your external drive. It will probably be E and named removable disk.
Step 4

Highlight the folder or files on your hard drive you want to back up to the external flash drive. Just go to the file you want to copy and click with your left mouse button. Do not let go. Hold the left mouse button down and drag the file or folder you want copy to the removable disk drive. Once your curser is over the removable disk drive file take your finger off the left mouse button. You will see a box pop up showing the files being copied from the hard drive to the flash drive.
Step 5

After the box goes away your files and folders are done transferring. You will see them appear in the removable drive now. Repeat these steps for all folders you want backed up.