Windows Backup

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Windows Backup

Windows has a backup program ready to go on your system. Navigate to START, PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, then SYSTEM TOOLS and you'll find the backup utility. While older versions of this utility will differ slightly from XP Professional's, you'll be able to follow the Wizard when backing up.

You can backup the entire system, which isn't a great idea. Windows and other programs can be reinstalled. So you're probably better off keeping your data in a centralized location, such as your My Documents folder. You can add folders within that directory by opening My Documents and right-clicking an empty space. Name the new folders whatever you want and organize your data. Then use the Windows backup utility to create a backup of your data. Put this file on another hard drive, burn it to disk, or copy it over to another computer on your network.

Also, take a moment to schedule backups. The Windows backup utility will give you a chance to schedule backups automatically. This is normally located under the Advanced tab at the end of the backup process. Take a moment to set this up.
Gmail and Yahoo Mail

If you're having a problem with finding media to backup to, take advantage of free Yahoo Mail and Google Gmail accounts. You can get up to 2 Gigabytes of storage space on these accounts. What does this mean? You can email yourself attachments containing data. So you essentially have an invisible hard drive Out There on the Internet. This is great for temporary or redundant storage, but do not rely on it for the long term.
In Conclusion

No matter how you backup, make sure you never rely on a single source. Rotate your backups out of the home, Email them to yourself or place them on a separate partition on your hard drive. Take advantage of the backup utility in Windows and use the scheduler feature to automate things. Be proactive with your data, and you will be better off when your system fails....and it will fail. Eventually.

[bccruzer]

Again, good advice. About Yahoo and Gmail. Yahoo has only 2 gigs of service, but it has free virus scanning, which means that most viruses aren't allowed do just slip in with your data. GMail, however, has 2.7 ? gigabytes of storage, which is good. Also, Gmail never automatically deletes stuff from your inbox. Using CD's is also a good idea. And every system eventually breaks down. My computer was just fixed 2 days ago.