USB explanation

Your Dell has bog-standard USB ports yes? They will be USB type A. Your new external drive will almost certainly come with a cable connector which will almost certainly be USB type C to USB type A and Robert's your father's brother. If it doesn't come with a cable then your friendly local shop or Amazon or eBay will supply you with a USB A-C cable.

HTH

Nick

Its a bit hard to identify "something else" without more information such as the exact model number of the Dell or a better description. However, of the standard USB ports the one to use is the blue one. This will be USB3 which is MUCH faster than the other two black ones. If the drive that you buy has USB-C you can get adapter cables that will link the blue USB 3 port on the PC to the USB-C port on the drive.

John

Something like one of these?

I have several USB sockets on my old Dell, and a variety of memory sticks, mostly USB-2's I think but including one USB-3. They all work on the Dell. IIRC all USB's are suppose to be backwards compatible anyway, meaning that later versions (higher numbers) should work on lower number stuff.

Ok All.

Just a bit nervous of being offered a choice and needing some jargon busting!

The PC is a Dell optiplex 5060 SFF Desktop PC Intel core i7-8700 8th. Generation according to the sales blurb.

OK so "black" USB ports are (usually) type-a USB 2.0 so a slower port. The "Blue" USB port is USB 3.0 so is what you need. The other could be anything, probably SATA...

If your external drive comes with a USB-A to USB-C just plug it into the blue port. If it comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable either buy an A to C or get an A to C adaptor.

Dave

Something like a Crucial X6 or X8 from Amazon would be just fine. You want an SSD, NOT a hard drive., SSD much faster. About £50 to £60.

Take the chassis into Currys and ask them to kit you out with what you need.

Umm. I was looking at one of these

Cable supplied is type C so should fit. This is just for routine monthly backups so speed not an issue. I have yet to find out how to do this in W11 and avoid the cloud!

It's for backup. Speed irrelevant! Next question is how to do this in W11. My W7 backup doesn't seem to include mail which is a nuisance as I don't even have the address list.

Do that now. All email clients will export contacts to a CSV file, which you can save on a USB stick, better still on two. Export will be somewhere on the File menu. CSV can be best manipulated with a spreadsheet, but it's pure text so you can read it in Notepad and import it to any other email client.

Cut it down to just:

everything after that point is tracking data & such like.

It's a HDD, so as you mention it will be a lot slower than an SSD. The other point to mention is that a portable HDD is vulnerable to knocks & vibration whilst an SSD isn't.

Without all the tracking and search engine fodder, it's just

Point taken. However, I have been lumping my current back up drive around for 10 years or so...

Ok Joe. Mistake to assume a Windows backup would include freeware data!

Thanks all. I have plenty to be going on with. Next job is sorting and re-importing W7 backed up stuff.

Pro tip. Amazon address reduction:

- delete the question mark and everything after it

- delete everything after amazon.co.uk up to (but not including) the /dp

- test just in case

So:

Reading through the thread it is possible that your more important requirement is a 3rd party backup/restore utility.

One that can back up everything that you want to restore.

Cheers

Dave R

The old Windows/7 backup tool is still installed in W/11 and will let you backup by folder on a schedule...

... many folks just use robocopy on a scheduled task....

Dave

Why would nayone but an HD anyway over an SSD?

It's difficult because it's God's punishment for using Windows. On my machine it's plug-in then two or perhaps three clicks, done.