Completed. How to transfer info from an external Hard Drive to Windows 7 please?

[Barbara348]

Hi Pat,

glad that you, like me, are learning from my dithering about with this  transfer business.

I have got all my Documents and photos etc on an external hard drive.

Wonder of wonders, I've actually managed to transfer them over into my new PC this afternoon. Yippee.

I'm thinking that I should leave the External drive plugged in and set a up a regular weekly backup through my Nero backup facility.

Oh Boy, wait until I try & work that one out !!!

Barbara.

[Uncle Reff]

I'm thinking that I should leave the External drive plugged in and set a up a regular weekly backup through my Nero backup facility.

You should definitely do that 

Although it costs money, your data is priceless...

There are a number of automatic backup programs around, I use Second Copy and it backs up all my data to an external hard drive every time that I log off. This can also be set to timed backups if needed and also will do incremental backups so that if you need to got back in time you can.

http://www.centered.com/

John

[lapwlover]

I highly recommend this clone software. It can one-click to clone partition and disk. Besides cloning, it can do schedule backup set, incremental backup, differential backup. This guide may help you.
Good luck!
http://www.todo-backup.com/products/features/disk-clone-guide.htm

[Nick29]

I tend to use Acronis True Image.  With this software you can take an image of your drive and recreate it, so you do not have to reinstall any programs, and the drive that you create with the image is identical to the one you created (at the time you created it). 

[Redroger]

A question Nick: Will a cloned drive include any erros on the original?

[Nick29]

Probably.  It's a clone of the original.  You can 'mount' an image and use it like a virtual drive.

[Redroger]

Thanks Nick, That's what I thought, so the moral is don't use a Drive clone after you diagnose a problem.

[Barbara348]

Hi ,

First chance I've had to say thank you jamaine, lapwlover,Nick29 & Redroger for your tips and web links on this subject.

I've yet to decide which method/programme to choose for a backup plan.

So far, I've just copied all my Documents (including Pictures, music etc)from the PC to the External Hard Drive every Friday evening and it seems to work o.k.

I know it must seem to be a bit of an old plodding way of backing up my Data but it does seem to be o.k and I thought I'd carry on plodding until I've got a better grip of my new PC and Windows 7.

Thanks all again for the advice and help.

Barbara.

[Redroger]

However you choose to do it Barbara, make sure at least one of your backups is at a remote location for safety reasons.