in a time where everyone seems to be
getting by with their smartphones and
their laptops and their tablets the age
of the home desktop computer seems to be
coming to an end that's it I know it can
be hard to let these things go I mean I
probably have all my important files on
this thing backed up to a cloud
somewhere my photos are on flickr my
documents are on google and my music is
stored on at least three different music
services somewhere but there's something
comforting about having my files nearby
even on an old clunker like this so how
about we compromise I'm gonna show you
one of the best methods I found so far
for backing up all your documents and
files on your old desktop computer and
clearing out some space in your home
decluttering your desk and putting this
thing out of his misery all right now
before we get started let me be really
clear about what I'm doing here I'm not
making a backup of a vital computer that
I use every day that's a whole other
project what I'm talking about is a
computer you haven't used in years maybe
even decades you're tempted to just get
rid of it but there might be some files
on there that you want to reference
later on but you don't have the time to
go sort through it all and figure it out
so here's what i recommend we're going
to migrate the data over from this
computer onto a network attached storage
drive in this case we're using the WD My
cloud a two terabyte drive here that I'm
working with for 150 bucks there are
other competitors out there like the
Seagate central but the WD My cloud came
more highly recommended by seen it and
once you set this up it's going to pull
over all the data all the files from
your home computer and move them onto
the drive and it's going to organize
them automatically and when you're done
instead of the files being on some
portable hard drive that you're going to
misplace the files are going to live on
your home Wi-Fi network where you can
access them at any time from any
computer even a phone or tablet and from
anywhere in the world first step is
you're going to find your home's Wi-Fi
router and make sure that the my cloud
is plugged in nearby because this thing
actually plugs into your router and not
directly to your computer you're going
to take the included ethernet cable plug
it into the my cloud and plug the other
end into your router on a free Ethernet
port and you're good to go next you're
going to head over to the computer that
you're backing up and pull up WD calm /
set up / w
my cloud from here you're going to
download the setup software run it and
then watch it find the my cloud storage
drive on your home network using the
software you can be prompted to plug in
your name and email address in order to
personalize this and then when you get
to the end you're going to be prompted
to download an additional desktop
application and the WD SmartWare
application which is pc only the desktop
app lets you transfer files manually
just like a standard hard drive the
smart wear app though is the secret
sauce that automatically organizes all
your content before transferring it over
to the my cloud it's pc only though so
mac users are going to have to either
embrace the chaos or organize manually
since this is a pc i'm going to use the
Smart where application to create a
one-time backup of my computer it's
going to graph out all the different
kinds of media is going to move over and
it's a lot of stuff you do just as well
to let this thing run overnight all
right now once everything's transferred
over it's time to jump on to your
preferred laptop computer tablet or
smartphone and check to make sure that
everything's transferred over that's
important to you you can download the my
cloud application for Mac or PC or iOS
or Android open it up noodle around and
make sure everything important is there
finally before getting rid of your old
computer you're going to want to make
sure to clear all your personal
information off of it before handing it
off now to do that you can dig up your
old installation this for your computer
if you still have them and do a full
format and reinstallation of the
software or you can dig up a copy of
derek's boot and nuke online and burn it
to a CD are that's another way to go if
you feel an extra geeky or you can find
a recycling center that will destroy
your hard disk as part of the recycling
process so there you go that's how to
give your old desktop PC new life on a
network attached storage drive giving
you some extra peace of mind and look at
this some extra room on your desk
you
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