n00b external hard drive question

[Dusty Bottoms]

So I just got my first external/portable hardrive. it comes with software that you can use to transfer the files to the hard drive, but really, its easier just to go to my computer, open the drive and drag and drop the folder i want right into there.

my question is if i just do the drag and drop will this corrupt the files at all? when i use the software to transfer files and the end it says files transferred with no errors. so should i use the software to make sure there are no errors even though its less convenient, or is dragging and dropping fine?

 

[MooMoo!]

Ive tried D&D for huge amounts of files, but from one HD to another, not an external, and it worked fine if I recall, but took ages.

 

[Liesje]

I use a portable external and have always just done drag and drop. I like to control what goes where and when, even if it takes more time with me doing it rather than being an automated process. Also, some of those programs package/archive/encrypt the files. My friend's dad had one that backed up everything for him, except one part of the hard drive became corrupt. Instead of me being able to salvage everything but the few files on the bad sectors, I could salvage nothing because I wasn't familiar with the program or how to unpack the weird files it created. Also, my external is only 80GB. If I had a larger, non-portable one, I'd probably run some program that made a daily back-up of my entire system (as is) with an automated process.

 

[onebloodonelife]

I do have a Mac, and so I use Time Machine to do backups now on one of my external drives to do full backups, and I still drag and drop for the other, but previously, I never used a program to move files. Whatever program that came with the hard drive won't protect the files being moved anymore than you could. Plus, like Liesje, I like having control about where files go and such because I have an organized system for my drives.

 

[Dusty Bottoms]

thanks for the advice. i didnt want to drag and drop a buttload of data and then find out later it was corrupted, but looks like that wont be a problem.

 

[kramwest1]

I have several Macs, over 3TB of external HDs and only ever drag and drop. Never, ever had a problem.

Now that I have probably gooched myself, I will be backing stuff up today in case I have to eat my words.

Mark---BTW I'm partial to Western Digital and Lacie drives and I loves me some Firewire.

 

[Liesje]

I use WD too. The Lacie portables are too hot.

 

[onebloodonelife]

I have both a Seagate and a WD external, and my laptop's upgraded hard drive is a WD as well. I haven't tried the Lacie ones though.