external hard drive

[Guest]

please could any one help , i purchased an icy box external harddrive ,but it
came with no instructions? i want to put evrey thing fron my pc (i am
running windows xp )on to the eternal hardrive , just in case my pc fails and
i lose evrey thing .can i do this ? and if so how do i transfer evrey thing
over to the external harddrive thankyou in anticapation to any one who
can help steve (beebopalola)

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

please could any one help , i purchased an icy box external harddrive
,but it came with no instructions? i want to put evrey thing fron my
pc (i am running windows xp )on to the eternal hardrive , just in
case my pc fails and i lose evrey thing .can i do this ?

Assuming that the external drive is big enough, yes.

and if so
how do i transfer

You presumably want to *copy* it, not transfer it.

evrey thing over to the external harddrive

Using appropriate imaging or cloning software. There are several such
products available. I use and like Acronis True Image.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

please could any one help , i purchased an icy box external
harddrive ,but it came with no instructions? i want to put evrey
thing fron my pc (i am running windows xp )on to the eternal
hardrive , just in case my pc fails and i lose evrey thing .can i
do this ? and if so how do i transfer evrey thing over to the
external harddrive thankyou in anticapation to any one who can
help steve (beebopalola)

Plug the drive in.
Let Windows give it a drive letter.
Open My Computer.
Find the stuff you REALLY want to save (your documents, your pictures, your
email, your contacts, your favorites, your spreadsheets, your databases,
your installable executables, your CD Keys and install serial numbers and so
on..) and copy them over.

That's the basics.

Beyond that you have several ways to backup your system.. Here is some
reading to get you started on the road to proper backups..

How To Use Backup to Back Up Files and Folders on Your Computer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308422

Another option that came to my attention as of late:

Cobian Backup
http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

Full partition/drive backups are all the rage (although they are seldom kept
up-to-date enough to be of any actual use in a crisis) - so here are some of
the better known/utilized out there..

Symantec/Norton Ghost
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/

Acronis True Image
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage

BootItT NG
http://terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html

 

[Babs]

please could any one help , i purchased an icy box external harddrive ,but
it
came with no instructions? i want to put evrey thing fron my pc (i am
running windows xp )on to the eternal hardrive , just in case my pc fails
and
i lose evrey thing .can i do this ? and if so how do i transfer evrey
thing
over to the external harddrive thankyou in anticapation to any one
who
can help steve (beebopalola)

Beebop, I've had one or two of these drives myself in the past - I presume
it's a USB enclosure? I find that most times, Windows will not 'pick up'
the drive nor immediately display it in 'My Computer'. You have to first
'initialise' the drive via 'Disk Management'.

Right click on my computer, and select 'manage' - the 'Computer Management'
window opens. Click on the + next to 'storage', then select 'Disk
Management'. You'll see a list of your drives. The drive in the enclosure
will be listed probably as 'new volume'. Right click on this and select
'initialise' - wait a few moments until this completes - then the drive will
be assigned a letter, be seen in 'My Computer', and will be ready to accept
your files.

Hope this helps.