Computers & Networking

[jeanine911]

Hello: I have a a personal laptop and I am about to have the hard drive replaced.  (It is a Dell Latitude D20). I need to back up my files and have never done so.  I have a total capacity of 74.4 GB and have available ~ 47 GB.  What is the most efficient (and easiest as I am techno-stupid! way to do this?  It is mainly emails and files that I have stored some emails and photos in.  Thanks for help with this basic, but important,  question.

[darthgonzo7]

Your best bet is going to be an external hard drive. Usually they start at around 80GB of space and go up from there. It is pretty simple to transfer the files once it is hooked up.

[jeanine911]

Thanks.  I searched the Best Buy website and saw one that would suit my needs.  Will I be able to get instructions on how to back up online somewhere?

[darthgonzo7]

When you plug the hard drive into your computer via the USB drive it comes up as an additional hard drive under your "My Computer" settings just like your C:, D:, etc. If you open it up you can then transfer any and all files that you need copied just by copying and pasting them. Sometimes when the drive is inserted it will also prompt you as to what steps you would like to take next. Hope this helps.

[jeanine911]

It does.  I just hope there is some way to copy all of them as a group and not one at a time.  Or I could pay Geek Squad to do it for me...............?

[darthgonzo7]

Geek Squad would cost you an arm and a leg. I know it seems slower but the way I described before is probably your best bet.

You can put everything into a folder that you wish to copy and then just copy the entire folder and it would transfer everything inside automatically. That is what I usually do.

[jeanine911]

Drive Saver wasgoing to charge $1400.00! It's just my computer freezes after 1-2 minutes and the hard drive could go any second so I need something that can be done relatively quickly.

[darthgonzo7]

Hmmm...

I just checked with my GS brethren and they are saying to transfer files from your PC to an external hard drive would be $99.99 and to transfer everything to CD disks would be $160.00.

It's no $1400.00 but it still is a tad extra considering you're purchasing the external drive also. Then again it sounds like in your situation that the sooner you get these files transferred the better.

[jeanine911]

I was only purchasing the exterrnal because I thought I should.  I'll do whatever is recommended,

[RealGeorgeW Valued Expert]

Gonzo/All

Just to put it out there clearly

9.4GB or less backed up onto DVD's is $99.99

Unlimited data backed up onto DVD's is $159.99.

Unlimited hard drive to hard drive transfer is also $99.99.