Archive office docs with an external hard drive

It’s a good idea to archive your documents as you go, or designate a time to archive at the end of each month.

Whether you choose DVDs, or online storage, it’s important to back up your documents.

There are many reasons to archive your home office documents:

• Meet compliance standards: Many organizations are legally required to retain their business communications for a designated period of time.
• Easy to access and share: Having a well-organized archive of your business documents makes it easy to locate, retrieve, and share important information.
• Speed up processing time on your computer: The more files stored on your computer, the more random access memory (RAM) is used—which slows down your computer’s processing time.
• Peace of mind: Between computer crashes and natural disasters, there is the possibility of losing your valuable business records. Back up your documents to protect your information—whether it’s using DVDs, or online storage.

Learn more about the basics of archiving your home office documents.

The HP 500GB Pocket Media Drive comes with its own carrying case for protection and portability.

• Portability: Consider a lightweight option like the HP 500GB Pocket Media Drive for increased portability.
• Large storage capacity: External hard drives have a higher storage capacity than discs, perfect for archiving a large quantity of documents.
• Long-lasting: External drives last longer than traditional computer hard drives, typically because they're not constantly running.
• Automated backup: Synchronize your external hard drive with your computer so that every time you upload documents to your PC, they will be backed up on your hard drive as well.

Once you’ve connected your hard drive to your computer, look for it under Devices (on both a Mac and PC).

Do not plug or unplug your external drive from your computer while transferring data.

Archiving to an external hard drive is easy! Just connect your hard drive to your computer (via a USB cord or built-in PC media bay) and transfer your files by dragging and dropping or copying and pasting.

Follow these tips for a longer-lasting hard drive and top performance:

• Be gentle! Hard drives can be damaged if dropped or knocked against a hard surface.
• Do not plug or unplug your external drive from your computer while transferring your data.
• Store at room temperature, and keep away from heat sources.
• If you keep your external drive in storage—and not connected to your computer—you'll want to connect it to a PC every few months to ensure it's working properly.
• To keep track of your stored files, label your external drive with its content and last date of backup.

Explore the entire selection of HP external hard drives and other storage solutions.