How to Use an External Hardrive

An external hard drive acts like a regular hard drive, but it is portable. It can store any information an internal hard drive can, including programs for installation, documents, applications, audio and video files, games and a host of other programs. An external hard drive can also be used for back up important information.

• 1

  Turn on your computer. Once the computer is on, you may want to check the drives on the system. This will tell you how many you have, and how big they are and how much free space you have available. This will allow you to determine how you want to use the external hard drive.

• 2

  Go to Start then Click "Computer." Look at Drive "C" and any other drives that you have on the computer. Drive "C" will be the internal hard drive on the computer. Note the drive letters on any other drive. CD/DVD drives and floppy drives are also assigned drive letters.

• 3

  Plug in the USB cable to the USB port on the computer. Connect the other side of the cable to the external hard drive. The USB port may be on the front side or the back side of the computer. Most computers will have multiple USB ports.

• 4

  Go to Start, then "Click" Computer. The external hard drive should appear on the screen. It will be given a drive letter like "D" if there is no other drive in the system. Otherwise it may be "E" or "F." The drive letter does not matter.