Data guides
External hard drives: see how much data you have, then export it.
Pick a system to see two things: how to check how much data is in it, and how to export a copy. No form, no sign-in.
External hard drives
Archives & other
How to see how much data is in External hard drives
- Plug in each drive
- Right-click the drive → Properties (Windows) or Get Info (Mac)
- Note the used space
- Label the drive and note what it holds
Record used space per drive, not its capacity, and how many drives you have.
How to get a copy of your External hard drives data
- Label each drive
- Connect it to a current computer
- Copy all folders to company or cloud storage
- List the main file types and owners
- Store the original drive safely
Connect the drive and copy its folders to a current computer or cloud storage, then note what kinds of files it holds.
Old drives can fail without warning, so copy them before relying on them, and check for personal data before sharing.
These instructions are written by DataFrenzy from each vendor’s public help pages. Menu names can vary by plan and change over time; the official link on each guide is the final word. Screenshots come from each vendor’s own help pages and videos or, where noted, from third-party tutorials credited under the image; dashed outlines are illustrations, not screenshots. Looking up a size or preparing an export never sends anything to DataFrenzy.