How do I copy all files from my internal drive to an external drive on a PC (for free)?

If you have an external drive of sufficient size, a simple copy of the root directory of each partition and paste onto the external drive should get it. Go to each drive on the computer and open the desired partition. Select all files and copy and paste them over to the external drive.

If you are looking for a more automated solution, Windows XP and above the basic windows backup tool would do it, or I really like FBackup: fbackup.com/ fbackup.com/screenshots/small/free-backup-software.gif.

Since you already have a C and D drive you could...(depending on the size of the drive of course) Copy all files that you want to keep from you C drive to a folder on the D drive. There really is no reason to keep system or program files as you will have to reinstall of that again anyway. You might be able to save settings files like your bookmarks etc.You will then want only data files.

Like documents, pictures, music, email... That kind of thing. Then, you simply boot from your XP cd and have it format and install on the C drive. Your D drive is not touched.

Then you can clean up the stuff on the D drive. If you have installed apps on the D drive you can test them to see if they work. Most will not and you will have to reinstall them.

After that I would suggest buying an external drive and using some free backup software. I like to just take images of the C and D drive and put them on an external drive. When there is a problem I just restore the image or and individual file.

I use driveimage XML. There are others out there. You could also use DriveImage XML to create images of your C and D drive.

Writing them to the external drive. After you format and reinstall everything you would then install DI XML on the fresh install and you could peruse the images of the old C and D restoring files at will.

If you have 30 days to transfer and restore your files, have a look at Drive Snapshot drivesnapshot.de/en/intro.htm The limitation after 30 days: it won't backup any longer. I understand you don't need imaging software but Drive Snapshot is still suitable for your needs. Drive Snapshot does not require an installation.

Just download SNAPSHOT. EXE (about 250KByte) and to start it. drivesnapshot.de/download/snapshot.exe It creates disk images while Windows is running.To restore individual files, you can use Drive Snapshot Image Explorer.

It is available from the main interface by clicking on: View contents of saved Disk Image. From here, you can Map and Explore Virtual Drive to browse the image created earlier. Then, individual files can be copied across to other drives.

If you don't want to run/install Drive Snapshot, the author has make a "test-drive" available from the website. http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/start.htm You can click on this virtual buttons and the respond would be display just like the real program.

If you don't already have an external drive consider this one. I've used it and it's flawless and fast. ClickFree Automatic Backup 160 GB Portable External Hard Drive amazon.com/ClickFree-Automatic-Portable-... If you already have an external drive then depending on your version of Windows you'll have backup software as part of Windows (XP Restore, etc).

Your sluggishness may or may not be because of your hard drive. Things to consider about the disk are disk fragmentation (where the computer breaks up large files when it writes to the disk because there isn't a large enough space for the entire file) - disk defrag (defragmentation) is useful to cure that. If you're running a lot of memory intense programs and/or large files you may remedy the problem by adding more memory.

If you have an anti-virus program set to scan everything all the time, that will slow down your computer.

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