Computer on line back up

path1 wrote:
OP here... Thanks for all the help. Ok I'm going to go with external drive after reading the postings. Let me know if I'm right or wrong with the following question because in the past I had a tape back up and when old computer failed could not put data into new computer for some reason.

Question... With an external hard drive I can just unplug the external hard drive and take to other computer and put on my data on that different computer.

An external drive may have 1 or 2 wires.
- 1 wire will be a USB communications cable. This is the one that will move the data from the external drive (box) to another PC or any PC to the stand alone drive.
- The second wire will be an electrical A/C standard household plug that drives the motor in the external drive.

You will plug in the drive to an A/C outlet. A light may or may not turn on. It may depend on the USB cable being plugged into either PC.

Once you have the two cables plugged in the new drive will use the next available drive letter (C is usually the system, D is a DVR) - might be E. It will show up in Explorer or MyComputer just like any other drive. If you unplug the device (either the A/C or USB) the drive will disappear from the listing. That DOES NOT mean the data is gone - simply the PC can no longer access the drive.

Is that right or wrong (assuming that I also put software into alternate computer prior to first computer failing).

This is a tough question to answer without knowing the basics of the new PC.

The question becomes where is the data you wish to restore to any new PC or drive?

If you are buying a new PC it will likely have plenty of storage for your old PC data/images/etc and the new installation as well.

You need to try to get the data/images/etc from your old storage to either the new PC or the new USB drive. Then you can start making folders to store your personal data and submit those to the backup program of your choice.


If this is confusing come back and we will try to help again. :)