Transferring photos between hard drives: What is the best way, easiest way etc. to transfer photos from one external hard drive to a second external hard drive? My Mac Book Pro only...

Bear2 Loc: Southeast,, MI

What is the best way, easiest way etc. to transfer photos from one external hard drive to a second external hard drive? My Mac Book Pro only has a flash drive, so I download my SD cards to a 2TB external backup. Returning home there I need a away to copy to a second external drive, also 2TB.
Appreciate the assistance.
Duane

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

Open two finder windows and drag & drop is the easiest for me.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

Bear2 wrote:

What is the best way, easiest way etc. to transfer photos from one external hard drive to a second external hard drive? My Mac Book Pro only has a flash drive, so I download my SD cards to a 2TB external backup. Returning home there I need a away to copy to a second external drive, also 2TB.
Appreciate the assistance.
Duane

I'm not at all familiar with Mac's, but does your computer have two or more USB ports? Plug in a card reader with the SD card to one, your 2TB backup to another one.
Then open whatever program on a Mac will read your files (on a PC that would be Windows Explorer), and either copy and paste, or drag and drop from card to backup.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

You might also connect your hard drive directly to the router (assuming you are running wifi). Then, it's as simple as drag and dropping to the network drive.

CTTonymm Loc: Connecticut

All important files should be backed up - at least two copies, each on separate drive should be minimum - a lot of us are more paranoid and have three copies, each in separate drives and then have a software driven disciplined backup program that regularly refreshes the backups with changes and additions of files. A lot of software will do this for you (some even automatically on a regular basis). I use Chronosync. Also, one of the drives should optimally be located off-site in case of fire/flood/pestilence, etc.

Bear2 wrote:

What is the best way, easiest way etc. to transfer photos from one external hard drive to a second external hard drive? My Mac Book Pro only has a flash drive, so I download my SD cards to a 2TB external backup. Returning home there I need a away to copy to a second external drive, also 2TB.
Appreciate the assistance.
Duane

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Morning Star wrote:

I'm not at all familiar with Mac's, but does your computer have two or more USB ports? Plug in a card reader with the SD card to one, your 2TB backup to another one.
Then open whatever program on a Mac will read your files (on a PC that would be Windows Explorer), and either copy and paste, or drag and drop from card to backup.

I have a MacBook with two USB ports. I plug two external drives and copy using the drag-and-drop methodology. Also use time machine for backing up photo files.

gsconsolvo Loc: Ruidoso, New Mexico

DavidPine wrote:

Open two finder windows and drag & drop is the easiest for me.

Thanks David, I wondered how this was done with Finder

Bear2 Loc: Southeast,, MI

I have the same setup, but copy to one when on a trip. When I get home, if I drag the updated one to the one that remained home, will that do it?
Thought the Time Machine only updated the external drives on new data on from computer?
Thanks for the help!
Duane

LoneRangeFinder wrote:

I have a MacBook with two USB ports. I plug two external drives and copy using the drag-and-drop methodology. Also use time machine for backing up photo files.