How to Back Up a Computer's Hard Drive With a Flash Drive

Thumb drives are frequently no larger than standard house keys.

Flash drives provide mobile storage for users who need to quickly transfer files from one computer to another. However, they can also double as reliable backup tools. With a flash drive, you can easily back up your computer's important files and documents --- you simply have to have an available USB port.

Things You'll Need

• USB-compatible computer

Instructions

1. 

   These are examples of USB ports.

   Plug your thumb drive into an available USB port on your computer.

2. Turn on your computer and wait until it boots into the desktop.

3. Open "My Computer." Your thumb drive should be displayed as a storage location that can be accessed similarly to a hard drive --- it will also be labeled "Removable Storage."

4. Double-click your thumb drive's "My Computer" entry.

5. Open up a second "My Computer" window and navigate to the folder where the files intended for backup are located.

6. Use your mouse to select these files and drag them over to the first window that's displaying your thumb drive. This will cue up a file transfer progress bar. Once this bar disappears, your files will be backed up onto the thumb drive. Repeat this process for any additional files you want to back up.

Tips & Warnings

• Consider purchasing an external hard drive if you have large amounts of files to back up --- while thumb drives are often cheap and easy to obtain, external hard drives have the storage capacity for backing up large amounts of data.

References

• Boston College Information Technology Services: Copy Files to a USB Drive or External Hard Drive