Someone just tell me what to do

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Guest

I posted on here before, but didn't really get the help I wanted. I don't
know a tenth as much about this stuff as you people apparently do.
So: my internal hard drive is tiny. So I bought an external harddrive that
is really big. I know that it's for backup, but can't I move stuff over to
the external and wipe it off my internal? For instance, my entire movie
player, mp3 stuff, media player stuff, with all the files. Can I just move
it all to the external and wipe it off the internal.
If I can, do I need to install XP on my external so that it will run the
applications, or will it run them through the XP on my internal?
also, how do I make my computer boot from my external, if all of this is
possible?
 
You can't boot from an external drive. If this isn't a laptop, you may
want to consider taking it to the shop and having the drive replaced.
 
jp1251 said:
I posted on here before, but didn't really get the help I wanted. I don't
know a tenth as much about this stuff as you people apparently do.
So: my internal hard drive is tiny. So I bought an external harddrive that
is really big. I know that it's for backup, but can't I move stuff over to
the external and wipe it off my internal? For instance, my entire movie
player, mp3 stuff, media player stuff, with all the files. Can I just move
it all to the external and wipe it off the internal.
If I can, do I need to install XP on my external so that it will run the
applications, or will it run them through the XP on my internal?
also, how do I make my computer boot from my external, if all of this is
possible?
Click to expand...

The external drive will only work as a drive when connected to a
computer. If it's not connected to a computer, then it's just a storage
area to hold files/data until they next time it's connected to your
computer.

So, if you bought a external USB or Firewire drive, connect it to your
Windows XP computer, it should automatically be assigned a drive letter
(like F or G or something else). You can now use it almost like a normal
hard drive, although slower.

Do not install Windows on the External Drive, it's not designed for
that, and you can't RUN anything ON the drive itself - yes, you can
install programs on the Drive, but they run on your computer - meaning
that if you disconnect the drive you can't run them from your computer,
and you can't take the drive to another computer and run them their
either (in 99% of cases).

One other thing - don't use the drive for things you value. Being an
external drive it's subject to all sorts of damage that your computer is
not subject too. External drives are good for temporary storage only
(backups, moving files, sharing files, etc...) not as a primary storage
medium.

If you want to backup your files to something that's not a prone to data
loss, I suggest that you burn them to CD or DVD.
 
Bob said:
You can't boot from an external drive. If this isn't a laptop, you may
want to consider taking it to the shop and having the drive replaced.

jp1251 wrote:

I posted on here before, but didn't really get the help I wanted. I
don't
know a tenth as much about this stuff as you people apparently do.
So: my internal hard drive is tiny. So I bought an external
harddrive that
is really big. I know that it's for backup, but can't I move stuff
over to
the external and wipe it off my internal? For instance, my entire
movie
player, mp3 stuff, media player stuff, with all the files. Can I just
move
it all to the external and wipe it off the internal.
If I can, do I need to install XP on my external so that it will run
the
applications, or will it run them through the XP on my internal?
also, how do I make my computer boot from my external, if all of this
is
possible?
Click to expand...

ok.....first does your computer see the full capacity of your external
HDD?

if it does all you need to do is install xp on your external hdd then
making that you main drive...then copy the internal drives file
across....which will then be an extra dirve.......surely thats all?
 
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