Need Tech Savvy Help Please

[clubesquire]

Hi all 🙂

Unusual question probably, for in here, but I know there’s a wealth of knowledge residing here too 🙂

I’m running Windows 10 on a Dell Desktop with a 250gb SSD. It does ‘stuff’ really well, but now im close to a full disk. My files are backed up to and external 1tb hard drive.

What I’m wanting to do is transfer (not back up or copy) the files from my internal SSD to another 3tb Hard Drive, thus freeing up my SSD. I’m told there are good programs that will manage this for me, or that you can buy specific external drives with the necessary software on board.

Can anyone give me some direction with this please. I’m very untidy with my puter and it’s a bit of a mess.

Thanks,

Melina.

[collect247]

First off do you need all the info that's on the SSD? if not then just clean up the files that you don't need to make some space.

Otherwise get another external drive.

I usually clean up files that are out of date or of no use to me anymore and that free's up space.

[clubesquire]

Hi Crow. Yes, I do need what’s there. The 250gb SSD is way too small really, but to upgrade is sooooo expensive.

But thanks 🙂

Mel.

[collect247]

Yes you're right they only come in 2 sizes and you're using the largest.

All the best.

[digital*ghost]

In these kind of cases I usually just copy the files to an external hard drive, then delete from my computer.

[countessalmirena]

Melina, what about using a transfer cable? This will connect from one drive to another fairly quickly.

Oh, the agony of a full disc... I know it well. When it comes to information, I'm a hoarder. My work and my hobbies result in large files and a lot of processing is required for the specific types of files involved, so I have an excuse for the large amount of storage I need.

The most important thing to remember is that you must - MUST - back up your information. Drives do corrupt, and they can do so without warning and without apparent reason. One moment everything is sunshine and tra-la-la and happy easy accessing of files, and the next, there's a grinding halt and a wail of anguish and bitter tears and fists shaken up to the heaven with the cry of "Why? Why? Why?"

(I once had an issue where a drive and a backup unit failed almost simultaneously. I've also been closely involved with a situation where a business's backup drive had stopped working about a month before the main drive also spat the dummy, but the backup's failure had not been noticed. Very costly data recovery ensued.)

For the record... I backup my backups.

[jfmgray]

Like Digi said, I just copy from ine drive to another then delete the originals once successfully copied. However I use an old Microsoft program called Rich Copy - faster than copying from explorer. Has other nifty features (ie it can duplicate files and floders and update - a bit like a backup).

[clubesquire]

Thanks everyone, I really do appreciate your suggestions. I’ll give transfer and delete a go. Gawd knows how much trouble I can get myself into though. I don’t speak puter too well .... lol 

Oh well, some more to add to the learning list - and there go I where Angels fear to tread :-). The wine is good tonight 🙂

Goodnight all,

Mel.

[dazzledayz]

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@clubesquire wrote:

Hi all 🙂

I’m running Windows 10 on a Dell Desktop with a 250gb SSD. It does ‘stuff’ really well, but now im close to a full disk. My files are backed up to and external 1tb hard drive.

What I’m wanting to do is transfer (not back up or copy) the files from my internal SSD to another 3tb Hard Drive, thus freeing up my SSD. I’m told there are good programs that will manage this for me, or that you can buy specific external drives with the necessary software on board.

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Hi Melina,

A couple of things here.

1. A Solid State Drive is not really what you want for file storage - if you have a spare drive bay I'd be installing a new 1Tb or 2Tb drive and be keeping my user files there - SSD is really where you want to be keeping your programs and O/S to take full adavntage of its performance capabilities which are wasted on simple file storage.

1a. If you can't install a additional internal drive just make it external alongside your other one using a suitable hub.

2. On Win 8 and 10 MS have implented a kind of software raid called "Storage Spaces" - check it out here:

Howtogeek Article

Files save to one location will be mirrored to another which your SSD is really good at.

3. What you would then do is set up Storage Spaces to mirror the newly installed drive to your current external giving you 2 copies of everything on 2 separate drives.

4. Archive old files either to DVDRom or cloud storage (maybe both would be better) - you don't want quick access to really old stuff you would only use rarely.

Drive and storage maintenance is an ongoing task that can get really onerous if left too long undone.

[dazzledayz]

Oops, I misread your post.

You only have the one drive and it's the SSD.

Ok, you'll need 2 new conventional drives - one internal and another external.

The external one gives you some latitude in the event of a complete system failure where you may need to transfer your working files en-masse to another machine.