Backing up your computer

These days, more and more people are using computers to store memories, important documents, and various other bits of information that may need to be kept for long periods of time. Backing up a computer is essential for keeping long term (or even short term) documents around.

Step 1
Decide on the proper backup media for your needs. CD-R, DVD+-R, tape, hard drives (internal and external), online, and flash drives are all great choices, but the right tool for the job is always best. I would suggest an external hard drive as of right now you can get a 500gb hard drive for next to nothing

Step 2
Choose a back-up application. For personal computers, there are many options. If you are using Microsoft Windows, there is a back-up application built in (Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Backup). You can also use third party back-up managers, ranging from small programs to full online backup services. Mac OS X has the Time Machine back-up application built in. If you use a flavor of Linux, there are many open source options available in repositories for all of the major distributions.

Step 3
Prepare your back-up device of choice. If you are using a hard drive, it's best to use it just for back-up purposes. Make sure whatever you are using is ready to accept the back-up. As most most external hard drives are plug and play (the register to your computer when you plug them up) any hard drive 500gb or higher is great

 

Step 4

Ok the moment of truth. if you decide to use windows backup

(Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Backup)

it might look something like this

make sure you plug in your media type and select it.


Special note:
With Apple's Time Machine, just plug in your volume. A window will pop-up asking you if you would like to use it to back-up. Click yes, and Time Machine will do everything else for you.