need some help

[HeyThereDelilah]

I know we're gonna need a new desktop soon. I need to know what I need to do to save all my pics, select documents and our itunes songs from this computer. That way, I can put it on my new computer when I get one. I have never done anything like this before so go easy on me.

[Traveller]

The easiest way would be to move them all to a flash drive. Just click and drag. The itunes songs should be associated with your account and all you will need to do is transfer account to the new computer. I know there is a limited number of activations you can do, so disable the itunes account before you enable it on the new computer. If you need help with it, I can have my wife come over since she uses itunes and I don't.

[MaryEllen]

You could also buy an external hard drive - It's like a big flash drive that plugs into and sits next to yours computer tower.

All of my files are in one now because we just changed out our computer.

[HeyThereDelilah]

Don't flash drives come in different sizes? How do I know which size to buy that will accomodate all my stuff? As for deactivating the itunes account, you mean to do that on my current computer and then reactivate it on my new one? I will have to poke around on itunes to see if I can figure that out. I might need your wife's help if I can't figure it out.

Mary Ellen, what can you tell me about external hard drives? What are they used for? I feel like that's a dumb question that everyone but me knows. I'm thinking I would keep files on it that way they don't bog down my computer?

[Traveller]

external hard drive is just a big flash drive. Can't really be summed up better then she said.

Flash drives come as small as 246 megabytes or as large as 36 gigabytes. Possibly bigger, but 36 is the largest I've seen lately. External hard drive can be as large as a terabyte.
It really depends on how much data you have, likely 8 gigabit flash drive would be more then capable, but you could always just get the hard drive.
This might help you understand the data usage for your photos http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detai ... emory-card

[vicki]

You don't have an external hard drive? I can't imagine not having one.

Guess you need to have your computer crash and then lose everything to realize how important a back-up hard drive is. I bought one last Christmas (1.5 terabytes--huge $75) and keep all important things on it. I work directly from it--not even from my computer, so I don't even have to back anything up now.

I used to use portable hard drives and they were great--easier than my larger external drive--but my pictures fill it up too quickly.

[HeyThereDelilah]

Guess you need to have your computer crash and then lose everything to realize how important a back-up hard drive is

Well, I sure hope not. My computer hasn't crashed and here I am asking about it so I'll know what to buy.

[Traveller]

yea that is an advantage of having a external drive, I personally just use a back up internal drive and flash drives for their portability.

[vicki]

yea that is an advantage of having a external drive, I personally just use a back up internal drive and flash drives for their portability.

My pictures are so large that a flash drive wouldn't touch 'em. How does a back up internal drive help if your computer crashes?

[Traveller]

Well an internal drive is really the same as a external drive, but I can access it without plugging it into a network or into a USB port. Its not the drive running the computer and it is treated exactly like a external drive. I don't have a need for anything to be that portable that I cannot haul around with 36g on a flash drive.