How to Move Files from a USB Flash Drive to Your Computer

1. Select Start Menu > Computer > Removable Disk.
   
   
   
2. Right click on a single file (or highlight multiple files and right click), and then select Copy. This places the files on your PC’s clipboard so you can paste them anywhere you like.
3. Select the folder (such as Documents on Vista or My Documents on XP)  where you want to copy the files to on your hard drive.
   
   
   
4. Right click inside the folder, and then select Paste from the dropdown menu.
5. This pastes the file from your thumb drive to the folder on your hard drive.

To copy from your computer to the USB drive, you need to follow the directions above but in reverse. You can also open more than one Computer explorer window. You can then drag a document from your Documents folder to the window displaying your USB drive (or vice versa).

Properly Disconnecting Your USB Drive

Pulling the drive from the USB port while a transfer is in progress can lead to corrupt files. Make sure you are not copying anything when you remove a USB flash drive.

To properly disconnect the drive, select the icon of a thumb drive (in Vista) in the bottom right corner of your monitor. Right click the icon and select Safely Remove Hardware to turn off the drive before pulling it from the port. This will ensure there’s no data loss.

Windows XP has a remove hardware icon in the system tray. Both icons perform the same safe uninstall of the USB drive.