How to Copy All Hard Drive Partitions

Hard drives can have partitions, which function as separate hard drives.

Partitioning a hard drive is like creating another hard drive within that hard drive. For example, the drive letters for two entirely different hard drives in the My Computer page appear as (C:) and (D:). Two partitions within a single hard drive will also appear as separate drive letters, such as (C:) and (D:). Copying information from a hard drive partition is the exact same process you would use to copy all of the information from a separate hard drive.

Things You'll Need

• Backup hard drive

Instructions

1. Open the "My Computer" page on your computer. Double-click the partition that you want to copy.

2. Select all of the files and folders in the partition by pressing the "Ctrl" and "A" keys on your keyboard. Next, press the "Ctrl" and "C" keys to copy all of the information.

3. Revert to My Computer and open the backup hard drive, which is the hard drive you will be copying the partitions to.

4. Create a folder within the backup hard drive that says something like "Local Disk (D:) Back Up." Open the folder and then press "Ctrl" and "V" to copy all of the information from the hard drive partition to the backup hard drive.

5. Wait for the all of the data to fully copy to the backup hard drive. This step can take several minutes, if not hours. It depends on data transfer rates of the hard drives.

6. Repeat this process for all the partitions that are on your hard drive. It is not possible to copy all of the partitions at once unless you are using special software or programs, which is not the case here.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not access any files or open up any programs from the partition that is being copied. A file that is currently in use is not able to be copied. For example, you cannot copy a picture when you are viewing it with a program.

References

• The Elder Geek: Partitions