How to Copy Data From One Hard Drive to Another

on 11/30/2007 I should also add... Anytime you drag and drop from one drive to another drive, the folder or file will copy, not just move. Ifyou drag/drop to another folder on the same drive, the file or folder will be moved. If in this latter case you wish to COPY from folder to folder on the same drive, hold down Ctrl while dropping, this will result in a copy even though its the same drive.

on 11/28/2007 Usedtobeme is right. You can do this much easier by dragging entire folders. You do not need to drag one file a time. I suggest only using COPY/PASTE on small files and when you really want a copy. Why? Because if you copy/paste an entire folder (which might be huge), your PC has to dump the entire folder into memory and then paste to the new location.

If you want a copy, try this..
Hold down the CTRL key and drag/drop the folder to its new location. This will create a copy but leave the orginal in place. It also will not have to copy what might be a huge amount of data into memory before the process begins.
Thanks to everyone who had polite things to say about my articles. Drop me a note, if you would like me to cover any topic you need.

on 11/28/2007 Audiomind seems to think everyone should be just like him. I'm glad they are not. Fact is, there are a lot of new PC users. Moms, dads, grandparents, and young people who have yet to learn basic PC skills. As a veteran of the computer industry with decades of experience in both digital electronics and computer networking, I know there’s much learning needed by the modern-day user. Everyone has a PC these days but little to no formal education. I’m just trying to help bring everyone a little help. By the way (audiomind): This topic was the most requested and most wanted topic from EHOW users. I was awarded bonus points and featured on the home page for this little article. The fact is, the most popular HOW-TO's are the simple one's anyone can use.

on 11/27/2007 I pity the person who uses the internet to surf eHow, only to need instructions on how to copy files from one drive to another as you've described.

on 11/14/2007 However, it should be noted that this process can be time consuming, especially if you are moving many files or folders. In that case, if you can, I would suggest saving the files to a disk and then saving them to the new destination as a quicker way.