Back Up Files to an External Hard Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ralph Prince
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Ralph Prince

How do I back up the all files and programs (except those
that can be recovered by System Restore)on my 100GB
internal drive to the Western Digital 80GB External Drive
I have purchased and installed?
The new external drive appears to be working, but I do
not know how to use Windows XP Home Edition to transfer
copies of my files and programs to it. I have a Compaq
8401 computer. I am a novice user as may be evident from
my question.

Is there a step-by-step tutorial that would guide me
through the task? If so, how and where do I access it?
If not, is there anyone out there with the necessary
knowledge who will assist me?

Thanks, Ralph
 
Ralph said:
How do I back up the all files and programs (except those
that can be recovered by System Restore)on my 100GB
internal drive to the Western Digital 80GB External Drive
I have purchased and installed?
The new external drive appears to be working, but I do
not know how to use Windows XP Home Edition to transfer
copies of my files and programs to it. I have a Compaq
8401 computer. I am a novice user as may be evident from
my question.
Click to expand...

My recipe for moving a system to a new drive: (the same program will
later make and restore backup images of the system to a different drive
- say your old one, kept around, or to a writeable CD set or DVD

What I use is BootIT NG, from http://www.BootitNG.com ($35 shareware -
30 day full functional trial)

Download, to its own folder, extract from the zip, run the bootitng to
make a boot floppy.

With the new drive plugged in as slave/secondary, boot the floppy,
Cancel Install, entering maintenance, then click on Partition work.
Highlight your C:,Copy, then on left select the new drive (HD1) and
Paste.

You might then consider a resize up a bit. Or highlight the free space
remaining beyond, click Create choosing Extended partition to use the
rest of the space, then similarly in that to make one or more volumes
in that (to become drives D:, etc)

Now click on 'View MBR' and in it highlight the entry for this new C
partition and click the 'Set Active' Click 'Write Standard MBR' and
Apply. Also make a check that this partition is in the same place in
the table as it was if you do a View MBR on the old one - if not use the
Up or down to correct it.

Close out, swap the disks to make the new one the one that boots, and
reboot into XP.
 
Ralph said:
How do I back up the all files and programs (except those
that can be recovered by System Restore)on my 100GB
internal drive to the Western Digital 80GB External Drive
I have purchased and installed?
The new external drive appears to be working, but I do
not know how to use Windows XP Home Edition to transfer
copies of my files and programs to it. I have a Compaq
8401 computer. I am a novice user as may be evident from
my question.

Is there a step-by-step tutorial that would guide me
through the task? If so, how and where do I access it?
If not, is there anyone out there with the necessary
knowledge who will assist me?

Thanks, Ralph
Click to expand...

Copy/Paste works for me. I select my C: drive and choose Select all. Then,
holding the CTRL key down I click on files I don't need. Like the huge
GoBack info file and the memory file. Then I right click and choose Copy.
Then I right click on my external drive icon and choose Paste.
 
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