What and How Should I Back Up?

One of THE questions you should ask when buying a new computer is:  What am I going to use to backup my files when I start using this thing?

When is a good time to start backing up? Let me tell you: The moment you type your first letter and save it to the hard drive is the time you should seriously think about backing up.

The first law of computing is: BACKUP!

What am I going to back up?

For the last few upgrades of the Windows operating system, Microsoft have tried to steer us into using the "My Documents" folder on the hard drive. This "special folder" is unique to each user on your computer and so it has by its very nature been tucked away from normal file usage to protect the currently logged on user's files from other users.

If you have more than one person using your computer, each person's "My Documents" folder is loaded into position by the operating system and the previous owner's files are squirreled out of harm's way.

All Microsoft programs use this as the default dumping ground when you go to save a file from that program; whether it is a Word file or an Excel or Publisher file etc.

When you open Windows Explorer, the My Documents folder is always at the very top of the tree to allow easy access to all the sub folders underneath such as: The "My Pictures" folder for your digital photos, the "My Music" folder for your digital music collection, and the "My Downloaded Files" folder for your Internet goodies.

As you use your computer, this My Documents folder gets quite a lot of stuff in it.  Most of the really important computer work gets stored here, so this is a good starting place for backing up and getting back to normal if and when disaster strikes.  Read on for a guide to using the Microsoft backup program supplied with Windows XP for doing just this...

(If you have Windows XP Home Edition and haven't read my page on getting this utility off your CD, please click here for details before going any further)

This is the routine you should follow if this is the FIRST backup you are doing.  There are a few more options if you are doing subsequent backups.

Use the Windows Backup Utility as follows...

1.  Open the backup utility by going through:  Start | All Programs... | Accessories | System Tools | Backup

2.  From the set of tabs shown along the top, choose the second tab - "Backup"

3.  This window shows you the list of the drives attached to your computer.  To keep this as simple as possible, we are just going to tick the "My Documents" box which is second to bottom on the list.  This has been treated as a "special folder" by the backup program as well, allowing you easy access.  You could of course use the + sign next to a drive letter and drill down to folders that you have created and select files further into the tree to backup as well.

4.  A word of caution here:  I have shifted my My Documents folder to another drive letter on my computer to keep it separate from the operating system.  The main reason for this is when I need to reinstall Windows, it lets me delete the whole drive partition without losing anything important.  The backup program has not found the shifted location and still insists my documents are on Drive C: in the normal place.  If you have the ability to shift your default My Documents folder to another location then you will be able to deal with this.  As a new user and using the default settings for everything, you won't have this problem.

5.  All that remains now is to specify a location for the backup files to be sent to.  This is controlled by the box at the bottom of the screen above labeled: "Backup media or file name".  We are going to click the Browse... box and choose a location manually.  You can choose a CD Writer drive (have a blank CD or CDRW ready to go) or if you have an external hard drive then this is one of the best options (through a USB port). The best idea is for you to get the backup data off your computer completely and even remove it from the house or office completely.  You decide how much of a loss that data would be to you should your computer be stolen or damaged in a fire.

6.  Finally, we have supplied enough information to the program for it to go ahead and do the job.  You can replace the default text in the "Backup description:" box with something more meaningful if you wish.  The options in the middle refer to the way the program behaves if it finds another backup set in the same place.  You can elect to add another file or append the current data set to the one already there, or you can replace completely the previous file.  Click "Start Backup" and sit back comfortably while the process is carried out.  If you decide to keep this file on your current hard drive temporarily, you can always copy the backup file to a CD later.

Try to be selective in your backups.  Just ticking the whole drive letter is going to create a huge and cumbersome file that is not going to restore your whole drive very easily.  There are special programs that do this and they are called drive image programs.  You cannot do this within XP.