Ask the IT Guy: How Can I Back Up My Computer Hard Drive?

Dear IT Guy,

In your last article, you shared the importance of backing up. Now I'm wondering how to do it! Can you help? Thanks!

Ok, so you've already asked yourself the question, "Do I need to be backing up my data?" The reality these days is if you have a computer that gets used frequently, for personal or business use, you probably should be backing up your data.

The first step to backing up your hard drive should be to identify how big your hard drive actually is. I have included some steps on how you can do this yourself:

1. From the desktop, right click on start, then select explore.
2. Your Microsoft explorer application will load.
3. From here you will need to locate your Local Disk c:\ in the left navigation window.
4. Once you have located it, right click on it and select properties.
5. A window will open containing a graph that shows your used and free space. Right above that graph you will see your hard drives capacity. It will look something similar to 37 GB.

That number next to capacity is the size of your current hard drive. Now, our next step is to purchase an External Hard Drive of equal or greater size than our current hard drive. Hard drives these days are very reasonably priced and can be purchased anywhere from Best Buy to Wal-Mart. But remember to get an external drive that can be hooked up to your computer's USB port.

Once you have the drive hooked up to your computer's USB port, you are ready to start backing up our hard drive. Windows has a built in Backup functionality that you can use. Because of this you should not have to purchase any additional software.

To Use the Windows Backup Application available on your computer, follow these steps:

1. Click on Start, then System Tools, then Backup
2. The Backup Wizard will begin, then hit next
3. On the Backup and restore screen, verify that "back up files and settings" is selected, and click next.
4. On the next screen, select "all information on this computer", and click next.
5. On the next screen, you will need to select the drive letter of your external hard drive and name this backup session. Then click next.
6. Next you will see the "complete the backup or restore wizard" screen. Verify the information then click finish.
7. The backup process will begin. Do not do anything on your computer until the process completes successfully. When done you can click close.

That's it! You have just created a full backup of your computer. I would suggest keeping your backup in a fire and water proof safe. Now, in the event of hard drive failure or theft, you will be able to fully restore your data to the same computer or a new one. Plus, you will sleep a little better at night knowing your data is safe.