Ok, so I bought an external hard-drive

[Joecoolyo]

and I could use some help with transferring my files. And what I mean is that I filled up my old hard drive, just about to the brink, so I decided to by an external one so I could have more space. But now, I'm kinda stuck. How do you transfer files from my old hard drive to my new external one? Do I copy and paste or is there an easier way? My goal is to basically move everything (save stuff relating to my computer function) to my new drive, since that has a nice terabyte of space. But I attempted to do that, and my computer won't let me. I.e., I tried to move my folder that hold all of the "My Documents" and "My Pictures" etc. into this new drive, but it won't let me. At most, I can just get a copy of the original file, but not the "official" file itself.

So really to sum this up, is there anyway of basically moving my entire hard drive to my new one?

 

[Cutlass]

Not quite as you are thinking of it, no. However all of your files can be. I think from what you wrote your problem is that are trying to move file folders that Windows does not want moved. That doesn't mean you can't move the whole contents of those folders. Create new files on the new drive. (Make certain the new drive is formatted). Then you can go in to the old My Docs folder and select all the files for moving. Select all files, Cut, go to the new folder and Paste.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Ah, well darn, I thought there would be an easier way. Anyways, thank you! I've just got another 20 hours until "My Documents" folder is done transferring.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Copy paste the whole folder? You dont want to keep your folders on an external drive, not ones you regularly use. Dump all the data you just want to store (movies, one-time documents, etc) onto the external. Keep everything else on your internal drive.

 

[Joecoolyo]

That's basically what I'm planning on doing. I almost never touch any of the stuff in "My Documents", let alone all the other stuff I have collected over the years in the other folders.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Right. Just make sure you're copying the files, not moving the folder away. Windows will not like it very much if you move system folders.