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**dmjlambert** · 03-29-2024, 10:47 PM

I recommend get a couple of these external disk drives. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06W55K9N6/

Drag and drop all the data you care about onto both of them. Leave one of them at a friend's or relative's house, it will be your backup in case you have a flood, fire, burglary, disappearance, etc. If you have sensitive data or photos, encrypt the drive using your computer's built-in encryption software, that would be bitlocker for Windows, or disk utility for Mac.

If your computer craps out before you can get this done, and if the problem is with something other than the internal drive, you can open your computer and take out the internal hard drive or SSD and put it in an external case. Then your data will be accessible from a new computer by plugging in the USB cable. Example:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M08LCXW/
This example is for a hard drive or SSD that is in a 2.5 inch case attached with a ribbon cable in your computer. SSD cards that plug in to a slot would need a different type of enclosure like this: https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-NVMe-En...8G14NBCS/?th=1 I don't have direct experience with enclosures for SSD cards like this, just know about computers in general. If you can figure out the model number of your computer you can probably find youtube videos where people show how to remove or replace the internal drive, and you can use that information to remove the drive and put it in an external case.

A computer shop or a teenager can often help you with this sort of stuff if you're feeling out of your depth.

03-29-2024, 10:47 PM	#9
dmjlambert Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Cypress, TX Posts: 3,573	Re: Laptop upgrade ? I recommend get a couple of these external disk drives. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06W55K9N6/ Drag and drop all the data you care about onto both of them. Leave one of them at a friend's or relative's house, it will be your backup in case you have a flood, fire, burglary, disappearance, etc. If you have sensitive data or photos, encrypt the drive using your computer's built-in encryption software, that would be bitlocker for Windows, or disk utility for Mac. If your computer craps out before you can get this done, and if the problem is with something other than the internal drive, you can open your computer and take out the internal hard drive or SSD and put it in an external case. Then your data will be accessible from a new computer by plugging in the USB cable. Example: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M08LCXW/ This example is for a hard drive or SSD that is in a 2.5 inch case attached with a ribbon cable in your computer. SSD cards that plug in to a slot would need a different type of enclosure like this: https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-NVMe-En...8G14NBCS/?th=1 I don't have direct experience with enclosures for SSD cards like this, just know about computers in general. If you can figure out the model number of your computer you can probably find youtube videos where people show how to remove or replace the internal drive, and you can use that information to remove the drive and put it in an external case. A computer shop or a teenager can often help you with this sort of stuff if you're feeling out of your depth.