Q&A for How to Copy Files to an External Hard Drive

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Can I delete data on my hard drive

Kyle Smith
wikiHow Technology Writer
Kyle Smith is a wikiHow Technology Writer, learning and sharing information about the latest technology. He has presented his research at multiple engineering conferences and is the writer and editor of hundreds of online electronics repair guides. Kyle received a BS in Industrial Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Kyle Smith

wikiHow Technology Writer

Expert Answer

Yes, you can either erase the entire drive by formatting it, or you can delete individual files by opening the hard drive in File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac).

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Question

Will the external hard drive remove duplicate photos when transfering?

Kyle Smith
wikiHow Technology Writer
Kyle Smith is a wikiHow Technology Writer, learning and sharing information about the latest technology. He has presented his research at multiple engineering conferences and is the writer and editor of hundreds of online electronics repair guides. Kyle received a BS in Industrial Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Kyle Smith

wikiHow Technology Writer

Expert Answer

No, the transfer process won't remove duplicate photos or files. You'll need to remove duplicate files before the transfer. Or, if the file you're copying to your hard drive from your computer is already on your hard drive and has the same name, you'll see a window appear asking if you want to skip the duplicate.

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Question

Can I copy an entire application from my internal drive to an external hard drive?

Kyle Smith
wikiHow Technology Writer
Kyle Smith is a wikiHow Technology Writer, learning and sharing information about the latest technology. He has presented his research at multiple engineering conferences and is the writer and editor of hundreds of online electronics repair guides. Kyle received a BS in Industrial Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Kyle Smith

wikiHow Technology Writer

Expert Answer

Yes! Make sure to include the application and any necessary files for running the application. Note that the application may run slower if you launch it from an external drive.

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Question

What should I do to get more space for Windows 10?

Community Answer

Remove temporary files or files you really don´t need. A simple program for this is CCleaner, which will remove unnecessary files for you quickly and efficiently.

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What happens to my files, data, etc. when I disconnect/unplug my hard drive?

Community Answer

Whatever files or data you moved to your hard drive just stays there after unplugging. The point of an external hard drive is to keep your files somewhere safe outside of your PC. As soon as you plug the drive back in, you can access those files again.

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Question

Do viruses transfer to external hard drives?

Community Answer

In short, yes. Viruses are programs, and if you backup a program, then you will backup any associated viruses. If you copy an infected file of your own, such as a family picture, the same thing will happen. However, your picture alone cannot give you that virus on your new OS. It requires the virus program to run in the background to send data to the attacker.

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Question

Will programs added to an external hard drive work again if sent to another PC?

Community Answer

Usually not, because when you install a program it also installs needed files on the C: drive.

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Question

After a day's work, do I have to manually transfer the data or will the external hard drive do it?

Community Answer

You could use a third party backup tool to have it do it, otherwise you'll have to manually transfer it. On the plus side, the manual method ensures that it actually gets done.

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I have a huge file of photos. How do I back it up?

Community Answer

You can select the folder of photos, or just individual photos, and copy them to your external drive. You can also move multiple images at once by selecting them with the "Shift" key held down.

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My external hard drive has a lot of free space but my computer will not let me add any files to it. What can I do?

Community Answer

Change the Format to NTFS (you can use with Windows system only) or exFAT (you can use with Windows and Mac) or APFS for Mac only.

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