Schtechs guide to backing up and formatting any thumb drive or external hard drive

Part I: Backing up.

1. Make sure you have backed up any data to an easily accessible folder on your main hard drive. The easiest way to do this is to open up My Computer in the start menu. Right click on your 'C' drive and scroll down to new. This will open a sub-menu. Within this sub-menu select 'Folder' and left click on your mouse.

2. The folder will appear on your 'C' drive with the name, 'New Folder' highlighted. Type in your chosen name, such as Thumb Drive back up or External Hard Drive back up. Double click on the folder once named, and open up its own window

3. Plug in your drive to be backed up and within a few seconds Windows will bring up a window asking you what you would like to do with the drive (take note of what letter the drive is allocated for later*). Click on 'View files and folders'.

4. This will bring up an explorer window and you will see the contents of your drive within. Select all the files within the drive by clicking one and then pressing control and 'A' on your keyboard.

5. Click and hold down the left mouse button and drag the selected documents over and into their new folder. A progress bar will now pop up and your files will start copying. It will take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes depending on the size of the drive you are backing up. Leave this to finish, go and make a cup of tea and we will continue with part two when you get back.

Part II: Formatting.

1. Now the files have finished copying we can begin formatting. Open up a fresh explorer window and select your drive to be formatted (the one you took note of earlier*).

2. Right click on the drive and select format from the menu. This will bring up the formatting window.

3. From the file system menu select NTFS.

4. The Allocation Unit Size should be set to default. If not click on the drop down menu and select default.

5. Give your drive a name in the Volume Label box and check/uncheck quick format, depending on how much of a rush your in. Click on OK, wait for the Format Completed box to pop up and your done. Follow the steps from part 1, in reverse to get your files back onto the drive.

6. Make another cup of tea in celebration!