Much depends on what you're going to want to back up. I usually just copy important files onto a USB (commonly called a flash, jump, or keyring drive). I do full system backups onto a large external drive about twice a year and incremental backups onto flash type drives. I usually copy them onto another computer then. Most of the time it needs to be transferred for updating the other computer, on things like my address book, forms & checklists that I use, and the webpage I use for links.

Several of the programs have a built in backup system. I use those when available and then copy the backup onto the separate drive to transfer then import them in the program on the other computer for programs like Opera, Firefox, AM Notebook, etc.

For documents, I just copy them over and overwrite the old file or sometimes I'll keep one generation back in case there's a problem. Belt & suspenders approach.

Follow what I'm saying?

sorry, not really. Only a little. I just do what I know how to do and that's about it. If it goes its gone. Been there and done that too many times. I don't think my computer is working properly to put anything on a disk. I have 1 small flash drive, thats about it.

It's a good investment to pick up one or two small flash drives. I bought a 32gb one for about $50 and you can buy 4gb ones for less than $10 often.

Another option is get an external drive and just back up the whole thing. I have a 1tb drive so I can back up the entire drive multiple times. There's backup software that will guide you through backing it up or just do like I do and drag it over there in Windows explorer and let it copy away.

Recordable or RW CDs or DVDs are another option but they're far more sensitive to damage. Sometimes, like an address book, simple checklist or the like, you can simply print out a copy or two and have a sufficient backup.

The thing with backups is this: How often to back up, what to backup and the number of times to back up are determined by how critical the data is. If you should lose it, would you
A) Not care
B) Be annoyed
C) Be very upset
D) Lose a lot of money and time because of the loss
E) Jump off a tall building

Obviously the more critical, the better and more backups you should do. I had a client who was working on a major design project. They didn't back up the computer for at least 3 weeks and the hard drive failed on it, and it was a relatively new computer. They estimated between $10K and $20K in value lost since they had to go and start the entire project all over again. That's a major loss to anyone. Plus considering the time frame lost. Any of my clients who are attorneys, accountants, private investigators, law enforcement or the like I advise multiple backups and kept at different locations, in case of fire, theft or the like. Some should back up daily or even several times a day. If it's a small inconvenience like having to email for an address or do a search to find the website again, well that's not a catastrophy so those don't require as frequent (or sometimes done even need a) backup.

Give me an idea what things you need to back up and I'll try to suggest some options. If your computer isn't working right though, and(/or) if there's anything on there of great importance, then the value of a backup just went up quite a bit.

Remember there's a lot of ways you can lose data. Some of which are viruses or malware, corrupted files on the computer, damaged hard drive, accidental deletion, someone else on there deleting things they shouldn't and I have even seen a defective mouse delete things by clicking when it shouldn't, so it doesn't even have to be a bad hard drive. It's easy to lose data and it happens often. Too often I see the attitude of "I've never backed up and never had a problem!!!!" and that's good for them but how many times they've brought in a computer saying "My LIFE is on this computer!!! Get it back!" LOL

cynic, my main computer has a 1TB "personal media drive" that automatically backs up everything on my computer each week. A couple of times a year, I copy all the important stuff on a secondary computer, plus burn a CD or DVD as a backup copy (I also give my father a copy of the DVDs, in the event of a fire). Is this enough/too much? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

BTW, my "stuff" mainly consists of photos, quilt patterns, word processing documents, financial records--I'm somewhere between "be very upset" and "jump off a tall building" if I lost my stuff. TIA

I (now) understand the "need" to do backup, it's just that I never mastered HOW to do it!:(

wanda_va, having seen some crazy things happen over the decades I've worked on computers, I can't envision *anything* as backing up too much! LOL But, if you're serious on the importance of the data being that high, then I would personally be a bit nervous about that backup regiment. Granted, I'm a bit of a worrywart when it comes to backups but here's my concerns:

The automatic backup is fine *if* and that's a big if the backup works right. Are you testing (checking) that it's backing up and the data is readable? And is it doing separate backups so there's redundancy on there or does it overwrite the data? I'd prefer separate copies. Glitches happen and Murphy's law can apply at times. If there's a power surge, a bad sector on the drive or any number of other reasons it *could* happen to not back it up completely.

I like that you're doing backups in different ways. Good for you. Again with CD/DVD, be sure to check that you can read them and I'd even test them on a different machine to ensure compatibility. Although rare, I've seen alignment troubles on a recording drive that makes it so the CD could only be read on the recording machine. Kudos for getting copies (assumably current) off-site. Be sure that they're not sitting in the sun or something since CDs/DVDs are pretty susceptible to damage.

The 2 nd computer is a good method, but the risk of that one being stolen or lost in a fire or other disaster is there.

The importance of off-site is fire make that any disaster whether it be fire, tornado, flood, hurricane, theft or even vandalism (intentional or not) or otherwise. Having been the victim of theft of my system, and they even took the backups, I have extra precautions in this regard.

Frequency of backup will vary with how much and how often things change. And I should add there's no perfect backup regiment and no regiment that's perfect for everyone. But knowledge is power as they say so know the risks and weigh the ones that might happen to you. wanda_va, I'd really consider the value of the data. If it's records you truly would be in dire straits to lose then you might want to add some redundancy in the backups. One could even be an online backup to a good site that specializes in backup preservation. Possibly a second drive and alternate and/or some flash drives or something. In real life I'd speculate that, for instance the photos and patterns would be upsetting possibly but not truly end of the world to lose. Documents too, might fall in this category. Financial records could be something important. I had one client whose entire automotive repair business was on their computer. All payroll/tax records, billing, invoices, bookkeeping records and the drive died with no backup except a minor amount of paper printouts. There was quite a scramble to recreate those records by calling customers (from memory) to ask them for records to do income taxes. Now *that* was a stressful time!

country_bumpkin_al, the important thing is to take the first step. Doing something is better than nothing in this regard. Take a few minutes and decide the most important things and that'll tell you what to back up. Feel free to ask for help, I'd be glad to give whatever assistance I can.

cynic, thank you so much for your good advice! I checked my personal media drive, and it does separate backups, rather than overwrite. And I have checked to ensure that the backups are readable.

My most precious files are the pictures of my late son, departed family members, etc. I have kept the actual photos (just thrown in a box), plus I gave copies of the photo files on DVDs to my father, brother and daughter-in-law. I also have the photos backed up on 2 other computers. After reading your advice, I will also backup important photos onto a flash drive and let my father keep it at his house.

You can never be too careful, and I really appreciate your response and advice!!

For me, the most important things would be my Favorites and my Pictures. The reason I haven't backed them up is I don't have a clue how to even start to get them onto a CD or Flash Drive!:(