How do you move desktop information to an external hard drive?

Aoiffe337: How do you move desktop information to an external hard drive?
My desktop is filled with icon and setup/installations. I got a 500GB external hard drive and would like to move the icons and other information to the external drive without loss of information. The last time I attempted this feat, I lost about 600+ photos for which I am still grieving as they were important to me. How can I avoid making the same mistake again?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Jason B
If you just copy and paste, nothing will be lost.

Answer by Draxz
Just copy and paste it.

Always copy and paste it to the hard drive and dont cut and paste, since if there is a problem you will still have the data on your computer hard drive and you can deleted if after its copied

Answer by Don
Rt. click on the file and select copy. Rt. click on the destination and select paste. By doing that you have the files in 2 places until you delete them.

Answer by colanth
If what’s on your desktop is shortcuts, and you move them to an external hard drive, all you moved were the shortcuts – the actual files are still on your internal hard drive. If you want to move the actual files, you have to go to where they are and move them. (A shortcut is like a label on a box – it’s not the product inside the box, it just points to the box and says “the product is in here”.)