Could not find this item. This is no longer located in computer. Verify the item location and try again.

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rjft

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Jul 10, 2010
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I'm having a problem manually backing up a folder that contains many smaller folders, files, documents, photos etc to an external hard drive. Things got convoluted and complicated when during the initial copying attempt, my computer accidently shut down. From that point on, the situation snowballed after I trashed the first copy folder attempt. Long story short, I've made numerous copies, attempted to drag them manually to the external hard drive (E), wasn't able to do it, renamed them and then dragged them back to the desktop and now I have a problem I can't sovle.

For the sake of simplicity, I have 2 folders named "BackUp files". One is on my C drive and the other is on my E drive (external hard drive). They're both the exact same size, and have the exact number of folders and files in them.

I'm attempting to copy the one on my desktop to the external hard drive as insurance because even though they both open, I don't know which one may be tainted. (I really don't want to lose this information.) For example, I can't drag the folder on my desktop to the E (external) drive because I get the following message: "COULD NOT FIND THIS ITEM. THIS IS NO LONGER LOCATED IN THE COMPUTER. VERIFY THE ITEM LOCATION AND TRY AGAIN.

How can I resolve this problem?
 
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hang-the-9


When you wrote this " Every month or so, I swap the folder on the desk top with the folder on the external hard drive" it sounded like you actually swapped the folders between the two locations, not copied them, meaning one month you copy from desktop to external, another month you copy it from the external to the desktop.

If you just copy one way, that's fine. And I suggest you do it more than once a month unless you only make changes to...
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

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Mar 25, 2010
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First, don't drag things around, use either the keyboard commands or righ-click and copy / paste command. Dragging things back and forth can cause issues if you release at the wrong spot or select the wrong thing to do when you release. If they both folders open, and both have the same number or files, and you can open the files, then just copy the one from the desktop over to another location on the external drive. If that gives you the error, copy the folder from the other drive to another location on the computer and see if that works.
 
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rjft

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I think this updated description of the problem might be clearer and more accurate:

In my desperation to correct the situation, I've created a real mess. I started out having the original folder on my desktop and I was trying to copy it to the external hard drive as a back up; Every month or so, I swap the folder on the desk top with the folder on the external hard drive. This is how I manually back up.

When the message appeared: "the folder wasn't on the computer etc....", I then dragged it to the c drive. So now there are actually 3 folders.

I did alot of renaming and dragging; I now realize that the folder on the external hard drive is "bigger" than the other two ( c drive and desktop) . The one on the external hard drive is the one I want to keep. But just to be sure that I can drag it back after I upgrade to Windows 10, I attempted to drag it back to the desktop now but I still get the original "Could not find this item. This is no longer located in computer. Verify the item location and try again." message. I don't know how to ensure that I'll be able to drag the the folder I want to keep (E) back to the desktop after I upgrade to Windows 10.

Lastly, if this isn't confusing enough the folder on the c drive has a different name than the other two.
 
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

Titan
Mar 25, 2010
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I'm confused here, copying the folder back and forth between two spots is not "backing up". It's like running out of a house that's on fire, then running back inside using the back door and saying you "escaped". A backup is when you take an original, then copy it to another drive, and continue to copy the original to the other drive as it changes, not copy the copy back over the original.

If you want to keep the folder on the external, move that drive to another computer, make sure you can open the folder and files on that one. See if you can copy the files from the external to the second computer (Do not just drag, right-click and select copy or do Ctrl - C).

If you want to do a backup in the future, you take the original, copy it to the backup drive. Do the same thing again in a week. Moving things back and forth between two drives is just running in circles for no reason. If you want to have a backup on two locations, copy the original to a second drive as well. There are also tons of free backup software programs. One that is pretty simple that I have used is SyncToy https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15155, pretty easy to use, just setup what folder you want to sync, where you want the copy to go, and run it. It will keep the two synced each time you run it, will only copy changed files so you don't waste time copying files you don't need.
 
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R

rjft

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Jul 10, 2010
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I store all important original, documents, photos etc in one folder kept on my desktop. Then about once every month or two, I copy this folder onto my external drive and remove and delete the previous, older, version that it's replacing. This is how I've manually backed up for years.
 
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

Titan
Mar 25, 2010
60,387
1,081
152,940


When you wrote this " Every month or so, I swap the folder on the desk top with the folder on the external hard drive" it sounded like you actually swapped the folders between the two locations, not copied them, meaning one month you copy from desktop to external, another month you copy it from the external to the desktop.

If you just copy one way, that's fine. And I suggest you do it more than once a month unless you only make changes to the contents once a month. A drive failure can happen at any time. Check out that SyncToy utility, you just have to setup the sync then run it to copy the files, no need to do things manually and it will keep track of changed files for you.
 
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