How to Transfer Pictures From a Memory Card

It’s important to know how to transfer files from a memory card to your computer. The most applicable use of this knowledge is to move pictures from your digital camera’s memory card onto your computer for printing, sharing, safe keeping, and more.

This guide will focus on how to transfer files from one of the most popular memory card formats in use today: the SD card. Many cameras today use an SD memory card, and thus, many new laptops and computers come equipped with built in SD card readers.

Open a Destination Folder

1. It is easiest to start by opening the location that you’d like to store the pictures on your computer. Let’s open the Pictures folder that is found under your username folder. Find this by clicking on the Windows Start logo and selecting the user folder at the top of the list on the right.
2. Find the Pictures folder inside of your user folder.
3. Open the Pictures folder, and, if you like, make a new folder for the images that you will be transferring by right-clicking in an empty part of the folder and going to New > Folder. Leave this window open for now- it will be important for the next steps.

Open the SD Card Folder and Transfer the Images

1. Insert your memory card into your computer. Memory card readers are usually located in the front of your machine. By default, Windows should pop-up with a menu giving you several options. Select Open folder to view files. Tip: Check the Always do this for pictures box to skip this step and have Windows automatically open the memory card in a folder view
   
2. Most modern cameras file their pictures into a folder called DCIM. Open this folder. There may be one or two additional folders inside your SD card; browse around until you find the one with your photos in it.
3. Select the images that you would like to transfer to the Picture folder. You can select multiple files by dragging a selection box around them. Simply left-click in an open area of the folder and drag the box to include the pictures that you’d like to transfer. Tip: To quickly select all files in the folder, press Ctrl+A (a shortcut for Select all)
4. Now the importance of the other open folder is revealed; you are going to left-click and drag the files, while still holding the left mouse button, from your SD card into your new folder in Pictures.
5. If you selected a lot images, a progress bar will pop up, showing you how long it will take for all of your pictures to transfer. Once the transfer is complete, you can delete the files from the memory card to make room for new images. Now that your photos are stored on your computer, where they can be shared, edited, turned into slideshows and put online!