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A Simple Way to Back Up Computer Files
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A Simple Way to Back Up Computer Files
Keep the comments coming!
I received some feedback from my first blog and I hope this blog helps address the question of backing up your files to an external hard drive.
Let me just start by saying that backing up your file content should be done if your computer is 2 years or older – of course any time before that is good too – but it is really important if you have a computer 2 years or older. I’ll explain how to do this with a PC and with a MAC.
To view the file content of your external hard drive on a Windows PC.
1. Open windows explorer. Click the “Start” icon in the lower left of
your desk top screen.
2. In the “Start Search” panel – type “windows explorer” and hit enter.
This will open your windows explorer.
3. In the side bar - Select and open the “Computer” icon folder. Below the computer icon you will see all external drives and external memory cards/sticks listed.
In this example (C:) is the computer hard drive
(D:) is the computer data drive
(E:) is the DVD/CDR drive
(F:) is a removable data stick
(G:) is a Western Digital external hard drive
(H:) is a Toshiba external hard drive
4. Select the external hard drive - in this example the external hard drives have a manufacturer name and icon “My Book” and “TOSHIBA”.
5. I have selected the “My Book” external hard drive.
6. I now can see what folders and files are present on the Drive.
7. Open any folder on the external drive to view the content.
To view the file content of your external hard drive on a MAC
1. Open finder window by clicking on the finder icon in the MAC Dock.
The side bar helps you navigate
2. Click on the external drive icon to see what folders are available.
3. Or - search for a file using spotlight - type in a file name in the
window and finder will show you all relevant files and where they are
located.
Hope this helps.
Let me know by commenting!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsuC_SnGVj4
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Tags: back up, computer, files, hard drive, MAC, PC
I don’t understand how this backs up two year old files. Wouldn’t you need to insert a disc or other device to back up onto? If the memory of whatever is contained in your computer is just double saved on your computer, if you lose your computer or if it crashes or whatever, you haven’t saved anything. ??
Hi Jacqueline,
Sorry for any confusion. Yes, you are correct. It is advisable to back up your important files to CD or DVD media disks. I was referring to the use of external hard drives that connect to your computer via USB or Firewire connections. In other words - I use the external hard drive as a redundant backup of the contents of my computer’s main hard drive (in my case Drive: C:). That way if there is a hard drive crash or catastrophic computer system failure, I can remove the external hard drive from the damaged computer and connect it to another computer via the USB connection to continue working with the most recent files that I had been working on. I should also mention that the reason I use external hard drives for backup is because I work on individual files that usually exceed the 4.7GB storage limitations of a DVD media disk.
A comment for Larry was made on his Youtube version of this video blog:
McCoolio711
your voice rocks!
To view the Youtube video version, click the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsuC_SnGVj4