How to move files from a PC to a hard drive instead of copying them?

Question

How to move files from a PC to a hard drive instead of copying them?

I want to move files from a PC to an external hard drive before factory resetting it. Since copying takes longer, I wonder how I can move the files instead of copying them. Any suggestion?

Best Answered by

Jenny Zeng

Answered on Wednesday, April 24, 2024

You can move files from your PC to an external drive by following the steps below.

Select the files you want to move on your Windows PC.
Press Ctrl + X to cut the files.
Navigate to the external drive where you want to paste the files.
Press Ctrl + V to paste the files.

Also, moving is faster than copying only when you do it within a partition. When you move files in a disk partition, your computer will just relabel the directory entries, which can be done in a shorter time.

However, if you are moving between disks, your computer will first copy the files and then immediately delete them from the source disk. In other words, moving files to a different disk is the same as copying but with an extra step, deleting.