Tip #3247 - Flash Drive Backup
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Q:
Is there a way I can back up my folders with something other than a CD?
What do you recommend? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
A:
We can surely help! That's actually an excellent question, because in
a world where technology is changing every day, it's no surprise that
you would ask this. It seems like just yesterday that floppy drives were
the "cool" thing to use and now we've sort of gone past CDs
as well. Of course, CDs are still a good way to save your information,
but is there something even better? To some, a flash drive may seem like
the better answer when it comes to saving your important files and folders
and that's exactly what we're going to talk about today.
So, if you own a flash
drive, this tip is especially meant for you! If you have one, you probably
already know what I'm talking about, but just in case some of you aren't
sure, a flash drive is a tiny portable device that you can use to save
any files, etc. It goes into one of your computer's USB ports and functions
as a removable hard drive from there. It is versatile in that you can
use it on any computer that has an available USB drive. Most flash drives
have at least 512 MB of space, but the more popular ones these days have
either 1 or 2 GB, which is a lot of space.
Now that we've gone
over that, let's move on to the actual tip for today! If you're wanting
to save one of your folders (the complete folder) with a USB flash drive,
just follow the directions below and you'll be done in no time at all.
1.) Go ahead and insert
your flash drive into one of your USB ports. The port will either be on
the front, the side or the back of your computer, depending on which style
you have.
2.) Once the flash
drive is recognized by your computer, double click on the My Computer
icon on your desktop. (You can also access this by going to Start,
My Computer if you need to).
3.) Next, right click
on the folder you want to save. It could be your Shared Documents or maybe
just one of your individual folders. Either way, right click it and select
the Send To option. From there, choose Removable
Disk. You may have several options for this, but just pick the
one that your flash drive is listed under. It could be any letter between
G and J.
4.) Now, you may receive
a prompt that tells you to overwrite the files that are already on the
flash drive. You'll want to check this out, because you don't want any
old versions of the files to be saved and you don't want to lose anything
else that may already be saved on the drive. If you don't receive the
prompt though, go ahead and continue on.
5.) This is the step
where the files will transfer themselves over to your flash drive. Now,
depending on the amount of files you have to transfer, this could take
quite a long time. You may want to go grab something to eat or take a
nap while you're waiting. When the transfer is finished, the File
Transfer window will go away.
6.) Go back to your
My Computer window and right click on the removable disk
icon that your flash drive is listed under. Select Eject and
everything will then disappear from your screen. You can then safely unplug
the flash drive from the USB port.
Once you remove the
flash drive, the backup is complete. Now, there are just a couple tips
you'll want to follow before you start this process. For one, make sure
you have enough room on your flash drive for all of the contents you're
saving. If you don't have enough space, the complete folder, etc. will
not transfer over. Also, make sure that you never remove the flash drive
from the USB port before hitting Eject. If you do, you could do some damage
to the flash drive or even worse, lose some of your data.
Okay, I'm done preaching!
Now, go and back up what you want and be content in knowing you did it
with a safe and trustworthy device. Aren't flash drives just the greatest?!
~ Erin
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