How to backup all data???

columbo_addict

Hi,

I'm not a computer/laptop pro at all - so i don't really know much about anything 'computer related'!!!

I bought a fujitsu amilo li2735 nearly a year ago and it used to say 'back up data/recovery'???? but I haven't done it ................ how do you actually back up all the data/info on your computer???

The laptop didn't come with any disks - it already had 'windows vista' installed + some other softwate....how do i get everything back if things were to go wrong??

Basically how do i make back up/recovery/start up disks??? (confused about what these 'disks' are called!!)

THANK YOU for any help!!XX

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asininity

It depends what you want to do. Make a back up of your files, or make a back up of your system?

savemoney

Acronis True Image Home 2010


will do both but its not free £39.95 or £31.86 @ dabs.com

It will backup data like photos or systems windows

Donnie

I you want to do a full back up, you'll need third party software(free options) and possibly an external HDD. If only files, I think Home Premium has built in capability for this. There is sometimes a possibility to create Recovery Discs from the laptop HDD.

MothballsWallet

Have you had a chance to look at the Backing Up sticky thread at the top of the board? It's got a lot of useful information in it that may be helpful.

lwbe

PriceBolt wrote: »

Hello columbo_addict,

As people have already explained how to perform full back ups, I will attempt to provide you with a solution to back up your files.

For this there are two options. Either suscribe to Online Storage providers, such as Windows Live SkyDrive, which offers a large 25GB of free storage. The second option, would be to use some sort of external media such as an external hard drive/usb pen drive or CD/DVD.

If using an external hard drive or USB Pen Drive an a window should pop up, select 'Open Folder to View Files'. Now, find the desired files which you wish to be back up, right click and select copy then right click and paste into the window opened up by the external hard drive/USB Pen Drive.

Kind Regards,
PriceBolt

Seconding this advice. If you're not a total tech junkie you probably don't have a huge amount (data-wise) to back up. If it's mostly documents/pictures and some music then a USB drive of several GB capacity might suffice. Backing up your whole system can be difficult.

Ultimately of course it depends on what you want to do...

columbo_addict

thanks for the replies - i would like to create a 'back-up'/recovery disc so that if things went wrong i could get the laptop back to when i first purchased it - would i need to back up the windows vista? if so how do i do that?......what else would i need to get it back to the 'original state' when i bought it??

thanksxx

CO2000

Can you go back to the seller of your PC & get a Vista disc ?

or there will be a roll back of some sort if things go wrong.

Use the copy & paste method to back up your data onto an external drive

Sorted !

jaylay_2

CO2000 wrote: »

Can you go back to the seller of your PC & get a Vista disc ?

Has your hard drive got a partition with the recovery info on? Mine has. You can either create a recovery disk from this or use it to recover from.

mjsrose

As jaylay says if you have a recovery partition on your laptop, which you should have if you have no disks, then you are covered for the orginal data on your machine. In the event of your C:/ drive going down you can re-install the operating system from the other partition. Perhaps getting help to do this. the easiest way to back up a info on a hard drive is to purchase a CLICK FREE 320GB Clickfree Portable storage device, cost about £100, this device is virtualy fool proof.

csj_2

I find the easiest, if not the cheapest, way to back up my disk is to buy a cheap (e.g. 40MB) used hard drive on eBay and install this is a second (slave) hard drive on my PC.

I then use one of two programs, either "Easeus disc copy" or "Casper XP" to copy my working hard drive to this new one. If my original disk fails, or I mess it up somehow or other, I can then simply copy my backup disk back to this original one
using one of these programs.

The copying takes around 1 hour (including all data such as photos, program setup files etc. that you have saved to your disk) or about 15 minutes to just copy a simple disk with just the original Windows on it. Of the two programs, Easeus is more foolproof and is free but requires the creation of a boot disk to initiate the copy process, Casper actually works within Windows, is not fee for a legal copy, and very occasionally does not copy everything properly. Both will copy all the partitions that you may have created.