Backup Your Computer Data at Regular Intervals

The most important thing you must learn to do on your computer is to backup your data at regular intervals. Many people store data, photos, financial information, music downloads, and irreplaceable files on their computer. Your computer will, at some time crash. The average lifespan of a hard drive is 3 to 5 years. A computer virus or spilling liquid on the keyboard or an electric power surge can wipe out your computer at any moment. Do not think it cannot happen to you, it can and probably will at some point in time.

There are operating systems, like Windows Vista, that has a backup program built into the operating system. Windows XP Home Edition does not. It is on the original CD, but if your computer came with the operating system already installed and you did not get the original CD, you can download a backup utility from Microsoft.com. Many people use third party software to backup their systems. Third party software is software from a company that did write your operating system.

What files should you backup? What is important to you that you do not want to risk losing? That book that is in everyone and is only stored on your computer is a good example. The photos of your family and vacation that you did not get printed out yet, definitely. All you financial information and the copy of last year's taxes that you did not print out are good examples. An important file to backup that many people forget is your photos. You need to backup anything that is stored only on your computer and you want access to later.

Should I backup the entire hard drive each time? No, you should not ever have to backup the entire hard drive. Any application that you have the software for, you do not need to backup. You do not need to backup your operating system. You do not need to backup anything you are willing to lose.

How often should you backup your data? How often do you change it? Let us say you are writing a book and you are writing it on your computer. You do not have a copy of it anywhere else but your computer and in your head. If you sit down and write another two chapters, you need to back it up as soon as you are finished writing it. If do not and tomorrow when you turn on your computer it does not work for whatever reason, those two chapters are lost forever if you cannot retrieve them somehow from the hard drive. You do not have to do an entire backup of all your important files when you only change one file. You can just backup that single file.

Where do I store the backup that I made? If you have more than one hard drive, you can store your backups on the other. You can store your backups on CDs or external drives or storage devices. Tape drives and zip drives are options also. However much or little you decide to backup, make sure that you date the backup on your storage device. For instance if you put your backup files on a CD, date the CD so you know which one is the more recent backup. Mark whether or not it is a full backup or if it is a partial backup by marking what files or file types are on that CD. This makes restoring the backup easier.

You can go to your operating system web site for information and instructions on how to backup your files and how to restore your files. They will have tutorials, downloads and some even have video instruction to walk you through the process. That way you know you did it correctly.