How to Transfer All Data from Laptop to External Hard Drive?

Why transfer your files from laptop to external hard drive?

An external hard drive work just like a traditional internal hard disk drive (HDD) but in an external format. An external hard drive is used to store data when a laptop/PC’s internal hard drive is full or sometimes, you just want to back up some important files so you transfer them to an external hard drive. Because they’re bigger and more portable compared with a traditional internal one, external hard drives have a large user base.

How to transfer all data from laptop to external hard drive [2 ways]?

Generally speaking, there’re 2 ways to get it done. When it comes to transferring files between 2 hard drives, people usually think of the copy-paste method. Namely, copying all the files from the laptop’s hard disk and paste them onto the free space of the external hard drive.

However, as you can see, it’s time-consuming as you have to enter each partition one by one to copy all those files. Moreover, what you can’t see is that in this way, there’re chances that data, especially some boot files, may get lost in the course of transfer. So, here comes another better alternative way – third-party disk cloner software.

Method 1. Transfer by copying

Since this is the commonest way people use to transfer files between laptop and external hard drive, I’ll give a brief introduction after all.

1. Click on the File Explorer icon at the bottom of the desktop to enter File Explorer.

2. Go to each partition, highlight all folders and files and hit Ctrl+C to copy them all at once.

3. Click on “This PC” and enter the external hard drive by doubling-click on it.

4. Click on any blank space in the external hard drive’s window, then, press Ctrl+V to paste the copied folders and files.

Now, the transfer is completed. Check every file and see whether they can be opened normally.

Method 2. Transfer with third-party software without data loss

Instead of going into each partition to copy files for transfer, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional provides the feature of disk clone. With this impressive software, you can clone all data from a laptop internal hard drive to an external hard drive without any data loss. In the meantime, by using this software, you can clone partitions and defrag disks or partitions as well.

Note:
1. If the hard disk you want to clone contains system boot partition, the operation will be performed under “PreOS Mode”.
2. Both smaller disk to larger disk clone and larger disk to smaller disk clone are supported.

How to transfer all data from laptop to external hard drive? Download the best disk cloner software to get it done securely!

Step 1. Open the installed AOMEI Partition Assistant, click "Clone" in the main interface, and select "Clone Disk".

Step 2. Choose the hard disk that you need to clone as the source disk like SSD and click "Next".

Step 3. Select the destination disk to store the data on the source disk, and then click "Next".

Step 4. Then, you can check the source and destination disk in the next window or change to "Sector to Sector clone", and click the "Confirm" button to continue if there is no problem.

Here, you can also click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size on the destination disk or tick "4k alignment" to Optimize the performance of SSD if the target disk is an SSD drive. 

Tip: If you want to clone Windows to a smaller drive, the "Clone without resizing partitions"  button will be greyed out. Then, a Note about how to boot OS from the destination disk will pop up. Read and keep it in mind.

Step 5. After returning to the main interface, check the pending operation and click "Apply" and "Proceed" to commit the operation.

After the disk clone, you can wipe the source disk and take it as a new one.

Optional. How to transfer apps from one drive to another?

In the paragraphs above, we discussed how to transfer all data from computer to external hard drive. However, what if you only want to transfer several apps instead of the entire hard disk to another drive? In this case, you can use another feature of AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard - app mover - to transfer apps including Microsoft Office, OneDrive, third-party software, and video games from one drive to another without any hassle.

Conclusion

How to transfer all data from laptop to external hard drive? It’s never hard to answer because everybody is clear about the way to copy and paste files. However, sometimes, the copy-paste method will cause data/file loss especially boot files of some apps and software. So, this time, another better and more professional alternative AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is recommended that is able to clone an entire hard disk to another without any data loss. Also, this freeware is capable of performing many other operations including merging partitions, checking partitions, and defragging partitions.