sky
I want to reformat my pc which I have no idea how to do, but i'm trying to save downloaded videos and music plus other things and I CAN'T DO IT...
help please...
sometimes i get a message that says ''make sure you specify the correct file name''
ok, how do I get to your computer, just kidding...
well I already plugged the thing in and it says is drive k, when i try to copy anything there ''I CAN'T''
Answer
Hi,
Okay, provided that you have a fully functional portable hard drive and that it is compatible with your PC then it is straight forward to save your stuff.
First, before you start I am assuming that the drive is a USB model and is powered from the USB socket instead of an external power supply.
There is one check you need to do first, plug in the hard drive (HDD) and listen to it, if it makes a soft whirring sound that starts of slowly and builds to a constant soft whirr then it should be powered correctly and you can proceed.
If it instead make lots of little start stop clicks and whirrs then it is not getting it required power from the USB port and you need to change it to a different USB port that will supply the power or run the HDD from and external power supply.
Right, lets assume that you have everything in working order, open Windows Explorer (simplest way is to RIGHT Click on the Start button and select Windows Explorer from the popup list.)
You should see a list of drives attached to you PC, the labelled C: is your primary hard drive, below it you will see icons for the other detected drives, on should look like a CD for your CD/DVD and your removable drive will have a slightly different icon and have a label like E: or F:
Left click on it and you will either see a blank right-hand pane or some system file will be visible.
If you right-click on the portable drive icon a menu will appear and the bottom item should be Properties.
Click on that, a box will appear showing you the details of used and free space on your portable drive, in your case the free space should be close to 500GB, if so then you have the corect drive.
Now right-click on a blank area in the right-hand pane, from the menu that pops up click on New.
From the menu that pops up from that click on Folder.
A New Folder will appear and you can give it a name to suit like Saved Data. then press enter.
You now have a place to store your stuff.
On the left pane, click on the drive called C: and the right-hand pane will show the contents of your PC.
Just navigate to the folder/s where your data is stored, usually under C:\Users\yourLoginName\MyDocuments\Music etc.
once there (i.e. your data is visible in the right-hand pane) you can simply (using the keyboard) press the Ctrl key and whilst still holding it, tap the 'A' key once, this will select ALL the files in that folder.
(you can let go of Ctrl now)
You will know they are selected as the colour of the lines will change.
not that all files are selected you can do two things, either Copy them or Move them.
To Copy them to the portable drive, once again press Ctrl and whilst holding it, tap the 'C' key, this will copy all selected files.
(If you accidentially knocked off the highlighting on the selected files, just redo the previous step)
now click on the folder name you created earlier, it should be highlighted and at this stage contains no files, now just press and hold the Ctrl key and tap 'V' this will paste the files you copied in the last step.
The files will now be copied over to the portable HDD and you will have the originals still on the PC's hard disk.
Just repeat those steps for each folder where you have data stored on your PC that you wish to backup.
The steps outlined above will leave your original files intact and still on your PC, if instead you wish to remove them to the portable drive then use the following keystrokes instead of Ctrl-C, use Ctrl-X (where the X means Cut the files instead of C for Copy)
Now at last you will have a backup of your data.
Just use Explorer to look at the folder/s you crreated on the portable drive and check that all the files are there before you do any feformatting.
If you are unsure about reformatting then it is best to leave it someone who knows what they are doing.
Doing a reformat involves reinstalling the entire operating system and then reinstalling all the applications programs that you use on the PC and setting them up to work the way you want.
Research 'reisntalling the operating system' to see what you are letting yourself in for.
Good Luck.
Hi,
Okay, provided that you have a fully functional portable hard drive and that it is compatible with your PC then it is straight forward to save your stuff.
First, before you start I am assuming that the drive is a USB model and is powered from the USB socket instead of an external power supply.
There is one check you need to do first, plug in the hard drive (HDD) and listen to it, if it makes a soft whirring sound that starts of slowly and builds to a constant soft whirr then it should be powered correctly and you can proceed.
If it instead make lots of little start stop clicks and whirrs then it is not getting it required power from the USB port and you need to change it to a different USB port that will supply the power or run the HDD from and external power supply.
Right, lets assume that you have everything in working order, open Windows Explorer (simplest way is to RIGHT Click on the Start button and select Windows Explorer from the popup list.)
You should see a list of drives attached to you PC, the labelled C: is your primary hard drive, below it you will see icons for the other detected drives, on should look like a CD for your CD/DVD and your removable drive will have a slightly different icon and have a label like E: or F:
Left click on it and you will either see a blank right-hand pane or some system file will be visible.
If you right-click on the portable drive icon a menu will appear and the bottom item should be Properties.
Click on that, a box will appear showing you the details of used and free space on your portable drive, in your case the free space should be close to 500GB, if so then you have the corect drive.
Now right-click on a blank area in the right-hand pane, from the menu that pops up click on New.
From the menu that pops up from that click on Folder.
A New Folder will appear and you can give it a name to suit like Saved Data. then press enter.
You now have a place to store your stuff.
On the left pane, click on the drive called C: and the right-hand pane will show the contents of your PC.
Just navigate to the folder/s where your data is stored, usually under C:\Users\yourLoginName\MyDocuments\Music etc.
once there (i.e. your data is visible in the right-hand pane) you can simply (using the keyboard) press the Ctrl key and whilst still holding it, tap the 'A' key once, this will select ALL the files in that folder.
(you can let go of Ctrl now)
You will know they are selected as the colour of the lines will change.
not that all files are selected you can do two things, either Copy them or Move them.
To Copy them to the portable drive, once again press Ctrl and whilst holding it, tap the 'C' key, this will copy all selected files.
(If you accidentially knocked off the highlighting on the selected files, just redo the previous step)
now click on the folder name you created earlier, it should be highlighted and at this stage contains no files, now just press and hold the Ctrl key and tap 'V' this will paste the files you copied in the last step.
The files will now be copied over to the portable HDD and you will have the originals still on the PC's hard disk.
Just repeat those steps for each folder where you have data stored on your PC that you wish to backup.
The steps outlined above will leave your original files intact and still on your PC, if instead you wish to remove them to the portable drive then use the following keystrokes instead of Ctrl-C, use Ctrl-X (where the X means Cut the files instead of C for Copy)
Now at last you will have a backup of your data.
Just use Explorer to look at the folder/s you crreated on the portable drive and check that all the files are there before you do any feformatting.
If you are unsure about reformatting then it is best to leave it someone who knows what they are doing.
Doing a reformat involves reinstalling the entire operating system and then reinstalling all the applications programs that you use on the PC and setting them up to work the way you want.
Research 'reisntalling the operating system' to see what you are letting yourself in for.
Good Luck.
My Seagate 500gb Expansion Portable Hard Drive suddenly won't turn on!?
Darrien th
I've been using this thing for about a year, and have had no problems whatsoever. I lightly use it (1-2 hours at a time) for storing my composed electronic music. Well after taking a break for about 4 days, I decided to crack back into my songs, and my portable expansion hard drive will not turn on! I've tried multiple outlets, unplugging it, and other methods and the light still won't come on. It's not a computer problem, because, normally, even when the USB is disconnected the green light flashes periodically, and it's not doing that.
Is it possibly the AC Adapter? and if it did fail, is there a way for me to recover all of my expensive AF software and information I've stored on here?
*If you're going to be a d*ck and answer with "Yeah bro seagate sucks" then go somewhere else, that's not what I asked.
Any help is appreciated!
Answer
You could try purchasing another ac adapter to test and see if this is the causing the issue.
In most cases, it's possible to recover the data as long as the hard drive itself hasn't gone bad. You'd need to crack open the case (thus voiding any warranty, but if you've had it for a year or more there probably isn't one now). Inside the case is your usual hard drive that you'd find...Yours is probably a 2.5" SATA since its a portable hard drive (same as whats in a laptop) so you could just buy a SATA to usb cable and plug the HD into your computer and see if you can access the data that way (would work the same way as you normally accessed it).
The cable itself is usually no more than 10 bucks on amazon at max. Hopefully this helps! If the computer doesn't recognize the drive, then there is a much large problem at hand and you could send it to seagate for recovery but it'll cost you a pretty penny to have that done (over 1k) so you have to decide if its worth it.
You could try purchasing another ac adapter to test and see if this is the causing the issue.
In most cases, it's possible to recover the data as long as the hard drive itself hasn't gone bad. You'd need to crack open the case (thus voiding any warranty, but if you've had it for a year or more there probably isn't one now). Inside the case is your usual hard drive that you'd find...Yours is probably a 2.5" SATA since its a portable hard drive (same as whats in a laptop) so you could just buy a SATA to usb cable and plug the HD into your computer and see if you can access the data that way (would work the same way as you normally accessed it).
The cable itself is usually no more than 10 bucks on amazon at max. Hopefully this helps! If the computer doesn't recognize the drive, then there is a much large problem at hand and you could send it to seagate for recovery but it'll cost you a pretty penny to have that done (over 1k) so you have to decide if its worth it.
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