How to back up a PC HDD to a 128gb flash drive?

[gumbob3]

We have an old PC (10+ years old) with an 80gb hard drive with some valuable data on it. I've heard it would be better to use a flash drive instead of a small external hard drive. How would I go about backing up all of the data onto a flash drive? It should be fairly easy, do I need to download any programs or anything? Thanks!!

 

[rgd1101]

Just data or also need the apps/os which required cloning the disk?

 

[engineer5261]

I'm guessing you are trying to back up your documents/pictures/videos etc. You do not need any special software to copy/transfer your data to a USB flash/drive as long as you know the paths to all the files you want backed up.
I am not aware of any issues with using flashdrives vs external harddrive. You should be fine as long as the usb device you are using is compatable or backward compatable with whatever revision of USB port you have on your old PC. Hope this helps.

 

[wpgwpg]

As has been said, you can just use copy and paste if all you want is data. Since your hard drive is only 80 GB, you could easily back the whole system up to the flash drive if desired. I use Easeus Todo Backup Free, which is free for home use, but there are many others as well.

Good luck.