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Back Ups

Its amazing how many people do not back up precious documents, files and their main computer files.

The main reasons that I've heard include the following:

• It takes too long
• I was meaning too but..............
• My PC is new so didn't realise that I had too
• It's too difficult

Making a back up is very easy, as a minimum you should use system restore (windows xp pro and vista) and copy all of your documents, photos etc onto CD/DVD at least every week/ month depending on how much they get updated.

For approx £50 you can invest in a seperate external hard drive which you can plug into a spare USB port at the back (or front) of your PC.

The PC will recognise the drive and give it a letter e.g. H: you can then give it a name! from that point onwards you can just copy and paste files onto the new hard drive. Doing this once a week will mean that any loss is limited.

The external hard drive can also be plugged into another PC with a USB slot to make further copies or aid recovery if need be.

The Hard Drive on your PC is a mechanical device and whilst they are very reliable they do sometimes fail.

I have known of 5 such failures on my own and friends PC's over the past 7 years.............and yes only one of those had been backed up!

The ideal is to invest in some disk image software from a reputable manufacturer and take a copy of your complete hard drive on a regular basis.