How to Transfer Data From a Laptop HDD
- 1). Connect the external hard drive to the laptop. Turn the external hard drive on if it has a power connector.
- 2). Open up two new Explorer windows on your laptop. The first window will be the window where you select the data you want to transfer. The second window will be the external hard drive. Do this by clicking the "Start" button and "Computer."
- 3). Locate the files that you want to transfer to your external hard drive from your laptop. Drag each file over into the second window and release in the window to transfer the data over to the hard drive.
- 4). Wait as the data is completely transferred over, and make sure you have enough room on the external hard drive to hold the data from the laptop. To be safe, try to go at least seven or eight gigabytes larger than the laptop's hard drive. This will insure you have enough room for your data.
- 5). Click on the small green "USB" icon in the notification area of the taskbar. This is usually on the bottom, right side of the screen. Click your external hard drive to safely remove it from your computer. Disconnect the external hard drive from the computer.
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