what /how do I back up?

mrs_baggins

recently hd a prob with my very well used 5 year old pc. Got an IT friend in who had to eventuallu use the original disc i had to reinstall or something sorry not quite sure. anyway at one point i thought i may lose everything that was on but he mnaged to save everything. It did however raise the question of back up.

I have an external usb hard drive where I keep all my photos and family video clips and important documents but from a programme point of view is it worth backing up and if so how do I do this.

I presume that if all goes horribly wrong and everything has to be wiped then the version of windows i use will just be blank?

giraffe69

If it all goes pear shaped and you go back to a fresh copy of windows then you will lose all data and any programs you have added. You need a copy of all your data held externally. You will likely have to re-install programs. If you have the CD's then fine but if you, for example, downloaded any programs then it is worth having them also on your external hard drive. If any of your programs need license keys then having a copy of those in a text file backed up will also save time and effort.

googler

For programs, determine how they got onto the PC in the first place.

From the discs supplied with the PC? Keep those discs and licence keys. Those are you backup for them.

Downloaded program from internet site? Typically, a program arrives as an installer file, which you run to install it on your machine. Keep the install file safe and that's your backup for that program.

etc

You should know what data you're creating with your programs - word docs, pictures, spreadsheets etc.

closed

Leaving your only copy of data on external drive is skating on thin ice, copy (don't move) them to the c drive asap, write them to dvd, and do a disk image (if you have a maxtor/seagate or wd drive, they have free disk imaging software on their website, or you could use macrium reflect free) to backup your whole system to the external hard drive.

birkee

Simple answer.
You can't back up your programmes. They are installations, not files. They have to be reinstalled from the original source. (disc or download)

mrs_baggins

thanks everyone for the replies. i will get myself organised and put things into action -just in case

closed

you can backup programs, with disk imaging software

birkee

closed wrote: »

you can backup programs, with disk imaging software

I think you are throwing in complications beyond the OP's capabilities at this time.

closed

I answered the OP's question, couldn't be simpler, install imaging software, run, save image to usb drive, just like any other backup software. Create a boot CD (menu option) for easy disaster recovery. Whatever happens to the c drive, (virus, hard disk failure), OP can then recover the lot, windows, programs and data in minutes without help from to a techie.

mrs_baggins

thanks for that info. I have seen it done but never done it myself but you make it sound fairly simple so I shall look into it.

thor

As mentioned by Close, if you have a maxtor or seagate disc you can use their free maxblaster program to copy your hard drive completely. So if your drive breaks down you can simply switch in the back up one with all your programs and data when you last 'cloned' it.
This will require a bit of reading up on maxblaster and swapping hard drives but it is not all that hard to pick up.