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by **themagicwand** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 1:27 pm

Very simple question that hopefully will have a very simple answer! If I have a folder on my PC (let's say iTunes because that's what it is!) and I want to copy it to an external memory stick, can I just drag and drop? By dragging and dropping am I making a copy or am I moving it off my hard drive and onto the memory stick?

I obviously just want to make a back up copy and do not want to move the folder from my hard drive.

TIA

by **kolm** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 1:37 pm

It depends. I believe in Windows it might copy it

To be safe, you can copy and paste the folder over

by **themagicwand** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 2:02 pm

Thanks Kolm, that worked a treat! Should have known the answer myself, but it's my wife's iTunes library and if I'd have messed it up I would have been consigned to the 7th level of hell. Fear clouded my judgement.

Thanks again.

by **Mandrake** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 2:41 pm

Based on similar fears which almost happened a few years ago (and which would have left me with a very high pitched voice) I always copy and paste!

by **Tomo** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 3:13 pm

The rule is that dragging across drives is a copy. Dragging around the same drive is a move.

by **kolm** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 3:18 pm

Tomo wrote:The rule is that dragging across drives is a copy. Dragging around the same drive is a move.

Aha, I knew it was that in Mac OS but I didn't know for sure in Windows

by **Lawrence** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 7:26 am

kolm wrote:
Tomo wrote:The rule is that dragging across drives is a copy. Dragging around the same drive is a move.

Aha, I knew it was that in Mac OS but I didn't know for sure in Windows

Neither does Windows sometimes though.
Right click drag and drop every time and you're safe.

by **magicj** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 8:03 am

Lawrence wrote:
kolm wrote:
Tomo wrote:The rule is that dragging across drives is a copy. Dragging around the same drive is a move.

Aha, I knew it was that in Mac OS but I didn't know for sure in Windows

Neither does Windows sometimes though.
Right click drag and drop every time and you're safe.

And best to do each file one at a time, song by song, picture by picture. once you have done one, go in and check it, listen to it all the way through to make sure it plays ok, then move on to number 2, and check that, then 3 etc.

you cant go wrong with that :lol:

by **Vanderbelt** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 9:19 am

Lawrence wrote:Right click drag and drop every time and you're safe.

This would've been my advice too, dragging with a right click brings up a context sensitive menu giving you the option of copying or moving, I right click and drag by default now.

by **Robbie** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 10:14 am

XP (and I assume higher versions of Windows) gives you the option to select "Copy to..." or "Move to..."

I think you can select these by right-clicking to call up the context menu. I've added both options to the menu bar.

by **Sarah Jukes** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 11:00 am

Gotta love windows.

Consistency in a UI? Nah, let's just let people guess what happens!

by **bmat** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 4:17 pm

Just to be sure, if I right click and copy to an external drive it will remove it from my hard drive and place it on the external drive?

by **Lawrence** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 4:27 pm

bmat wrote:Just to be sure, if I right click and copy to an external drive it will remove it from my hard drive and place it on the external drive?

No. It will place a copy on the external drive.
Move would remove it from original source

by **bmat** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 8:36 pm

Lawrence wrote:
bmat wrote:Just to be sure, if I right click and copy to an external drive it will remove it from my hard drive and place it on the external drive?

No. It will place a copy on the external drive.
Move would remove it from original source

Got it, thank you.

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