How to back up a computer

8 years ago

I use a laptop computer and it sometimes takes a while to start up. It occurs to me that one day it may not start up at all and I will lose all my data. I would like to back it up, perhaps onto a flash drive, so that I can re-load my data if required. I don't know the first thing about how to back up and I would appreciate any advice. tyia

Featured Answer

kudzu9

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

If you wanted to duplicate everything on your current hard drive, a complete backup would allow you to replace the hard drive (if that is what failed), and then install everything from the old hard drive onto the new hard drive -- including the operating system and everything else -- so that the computer would look identical to what you had before. To do this, you would need some specialty software to create the complete "image" of the old hard drive. The downside is that it would also copy over all the wonky stuff, like corrupted registries, unnecessary and duplicate files, etc.

Far better in my opinion would be to simply make a backup of everything you have on your computer that you wouldn't want to lose. This would be things like photos, videos, documents, etc. If your laptop failed, you could then: 1) install a new hard drive for it, 2) do a clean install of the operating system (which would likely mean a much faster computer, as it you would not be transferring over all the accumulated errors that occur with any computer as it ages), and 3) install all of the saved files that you cared about. Or, you could simply get a new computer and install the saved files onto it.

So, to answer your question as simply as possible, if you are mainly concerned about preserving files that are important to you, all you need to do is plug in a big enough thumb drive or external hard drive (you could easily get a 1 terabyte external drive for about $50 on Amazon: Toshiba external hard drive, and copy and paste any files you want onto that drive. Or you could copy the files and burn them to a DVD. If you know how to copy and paste files from one location to another on your laptop, then you know everything necessary to copy and paste them to an external hard drive or other removable medium that won't crash when you computer does. It's that simple...

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Comments (7)

Elmer J Fudd
8 years ago
stacey, how large in total are the data files you want to back up? Do you know how to determine that?

(kudzu, she said she wanted to back up data only. It's better to not over-complicate a solution).
stacey_mb thanked Elmer J Fudd
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harry_wild
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Just pay a dollar or two a month to a cloud backup/storage service and be done with it! Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft have individual service plans for doing just that. If you buy a new laptop get one with a SSD type hard drive. Will give you 15 second or less boot up and much faster overall performance.
stacey_mb thanked harry_wild
stacey_mb
Original Author
8 years ago
Many thanks for these replies. Good question, Elmer, as to size of data files I want to back up. I would have to do a quick calculation after I look at a listing of files. I don't think it's a huge amount - my C drive indicates a total of about 150 GB stored on it. Good point about the external drive - I believe we have one and can store files there.
User
8 years ago
Get backup software that will detect what files have changed or been added and only back them up. It's called "incremental backup. And make sure it can also restore the files.

GOOGLE for "free backup software and go to the review sites.

Let it nag you once a week or so to connect the external drive and backup.
stacey_mb thanked User
kudzu9
8 years ago
Elmer-

I’m aware the OP was talking about backing up data. I’m also aware that the OP wrote: “I don’t know the first thing about how to back up.” I’m not overly complicating; I’m trying to give the OP a bit of info on the range backup can entail. I’ll provide my answer and you provide yours and maybe the OP can benefit from both...
stacey_mb thanked kudzu9
Elmer J Fudd
8 years ago
No need to calculate. Using Windows Explorer, right click over the folder (aka directory) name where such files are stored, then left click on Properties on the menu that appears, and that will tell you the total size in MB or GB of the contents.

SyncBack is a free and easy to use program for backups to other drives or PCs. (Don't forget the usefulness of using a second PC as a second backup location)
stacey_mb thanked Elmer J Fudd

How to back up a computer

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