Large amounts of storage aren’t exactly a Chromebook’s strength. There are just a few ROM versions available on the market, with capacities of 32 GB or 64 GB being the finest.
These practical gadgets largely rely on cloud storage to overcome the trade-off of little room for excellent speed and lightweight construction.
As a result, you have access to programs like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Spotify, and other cloud services that may relieve some of the pressure on the Chromebook’s primary storage.
Thankfully, there is support for all file types, whether they be documents, audio files, or even pictures and videos.
But that’s not the end of the story—each Chromebook also has SD card slots and USB connections built right in.
You may connect your Chrome OS to external hard drives very easily with this hardware feature, transfer data, and handle everything properly so that the system won’t lag for you when it counts.
Read on to learn how to connect and use any external drive with your Chromebook.
DON’T MISS: WHAT HARD DRIVE SIZE DO I NEED FOR MY CHROMEBOOK? (BEST GUIDE)
In This Article
How to Connect an External Drive to a Chromebook
At least one USB port and one SD card slot are visible on the left and right sides of your device. If necessary, you may easily access your microSD card from your Chromebook with the aid of the right adaptor.
In any case, it is thanks to these ports and slots that you may use your hard drives without difficulty, particularly when they are the only place where the data you need is located. The connection procedure is outlined in the following phases.
1) To start, connect your external disk to the Chromebook using its USB connector. The moment you do that action, the following prompt will appear on your screen.
This indicates that Chrome OS has properly recognized your disk and that it is now functional.
2) Navigate to Files on your Chromebook to proceed. To do this, launch the Launcher and choose the program’s icon. Additionally, you may access it by selecting the “Open Files App,” as shown in the window above.
3) The next thing you’ll notice is that your attached external drive is shown below everything else in the left column. Click on your drive, whatever name it may have, to continue. The drive is the one next to which an “Eject” button is present.
4) The joining process is complete. If you’ve read this far, you can be confident that you’ve successfully configured your Chromebook and external disk. Great work!
DON’T MISS: HOW TO UPGRADE THE STORAGE ON YOUR CHROMEBOOK
Using an External Drive with a Chromebook
For any system, an external drive primarily serves as a storage backup solution. As a result, you may copy and cut files from your system to the drive or move them back and forth from your system to the drive. This is how to go about it.
1) Hover over a folder or file on your external device and double-tap to discover further choices for copying it. then choose copy. You may alternatively touch the folder once and use the shortcut CTRL + C. This would automatically copy the whole folder’s contents.
2) The next step is simple. Copy the information, and then paste it wherever on your Chromebook. You may paste everything thereby selecting My files and clicking on it.
The same method may be used to paste what you’ve copied within an existing folder on your computer; you’ll need to double-click the folder and choose paste. Additionally, if you want a simpler option, you may always hit CTRL + V.
3) The procedure will start quickly after you click “Paste into folder” and conclude in a few minutes. The prompt is shown in the screenshot below after it is complete.
DON’T MISS: WHAT CHROMEBOOK SHOULD I BUY? (BEST GUIDE)
All of this may also occur in reverse. The only thing that would alter is the direction of the steps. To start, just copy the necessary material from your computer and paste it onto the attached external disk.
Oh, and once you’re done, don’t forget to eject your drive properly! This safeguards your external connection from harm and securely removes the drive without erasing any data. You can also read up on this simple guide from Google on how to free up space on your Chromebook.