Guidelines
The HP Community is where owners of HP products, like you, volunteer to help each other find solutions.
Archived This topic has been archived. Information and links in this thread may no longer be available or relevant. If you have a question create a new topic by clicking here and select the appropriate board.

‎05-14-2017 09:33 PM

HP Recommended
Product: Compaq Presario CQ56
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit)

nil.

3 REPLIES 3

‎05-15-2017 04:23 PM

HP Recommended

 

@Elisecares

Welcome to HP Forums, 

This is a great place to get support, find answers and tips, 

Thank you for posting your query, I'll be more than glad to help you out 🙂 

 

As I understand you want to know about the tasks that could be performed on an external HDD using a computer,

Don't worry as I'll be glad to help, however, to provide an accurate resolution, I need a few more details: 

Is this the first time you are attempting to connect to an external HDD?

Are you having any issues in accomplishing the aforementioned tasks?

 

The reason I'm asking these questions is because the answer to your questions is YES, you should be able to delete the existing files and folders on the drive and copy the new one.

 

Here's a link with details on backing up on an external device: Click here for info.

 

Keep me posted for further assistance 😉

Riddle_Decipher
I am an HP Employee


Learning is a journey, not a destination.
Let's keep asking questions and growing together.

‎05-17-2017 05:19 AM

HP Recommended

Riddle_Decipher, I appreciate your help and your prompt reply. I wasn't very clear when forming my question I'm sorry. So I have a large amount of important files already saved to my 2Tb external HDD which I don't want deleted or damaged. Now I'm concerned that if I do a computer back-up to this same external HDD it might format the drive, or delete the existing files already stored there.  That would be a disaster for me. So my question is, if I did make a computer back-up to this same external HDD, will the back-up process delete or affect the existing files (which I wish to keep) that are already stored on the external HDD.  Or is it safe for me to go ahead and make the back-up to this ext. HDD? Elisecares.

‎05-18-2017 10:12 AM

HP Recommended

 

@Elisecares

Thank you for replying with this overwhelming and detailed response 😉

I appreciate your time and efforts,

 

It depends on the software you are using, so be cautious and make sure you've made necessary changes to the settings as some backup programs format the external drive and copy the data from the external source and some create a copy while leaving the existing files on the drive.

 

Ensure you select your preferences and then create the backup.

 

Keep me posted for further assistance 😉

Riddle_Decipher
I am an HP Employee


Learning is a journey, not a destination.
Let's keep asking questions and growing together.
Archived This topic has been archived. Information and links in this thread may no longer be available or relevant. If you have a question create a new topic by clicking here and select the appropriate board.
† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the Terms of Use and Rules of Participation.
Didn't find what you were looking for? Ask the community
† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.