Trying to back up to external hard drive - error msg

[mandpaul]

Hello,
I purchased an external hard drive to back up my files. However, I keep getting an error msg about the files being too large. I think this has to do with the format of the hard drive.
Instead of going through a backup program, can't I just do a copy/paste on the files I want to back up? That is how I would do it when I put files on CD, so won't this work on an external hard drive?
Thank you! Maggie

 

[fimbles]

Hello

What operating system are you using? Have you formatted and partitioned your hard drive?

If you right click on my computer and select manage, then disk management, then pick your external drive, right click for format and partition options. Please note.. this will delete all existing data on your external.

This alll presumes you are running windows

Hope this helps.

 

[mandpaul]

Thank you!
What I ended up doing was selecting My Documents, and a few other items (like pictures and such), and did a copy and paste from C drive to my external drive E. Seemed to work just fine. When I open my E drive, it shows them there.
Will I be able to do the same thing, just backwards, if something happens to my data?

Thanks!

 

[fimbles]

Yes. you can freely swap files from one to the other, either direction without any problems

Thanks for the feedback

 

[mandpaul]

Thank you for the help! Maggie