A: This question was raised recently by one of our members who had failed to make a backup and consequently lost a lot of important information when they reformatted their hard drive.
If you are using Microsoft Windows, there is a simple backup routine available. I find it easiest to access via either My Computer or Windows Explorer. The following procedure works at least through Windows XP. I do not have immediate access to Windows Vista to be able to determine if it works the same or not.
- Make sure you have enough media (floppies, tapes, CDs, DVDs, etc) to hold all the data you want to backup,
- Open either of the above programs and right-click on the drive you wish to backup,
- Click on Properties in the resulting menu,
- Click on the Tools tab,
- Click on the button "Backup Now" button.
Q: But what do I do if there is no "Backup Now" button!?
A: Some OEMs have decided that they want to complicate your life further by removing the Backup option from the Tools tab mentioned above. If that is the case, your only option is to:
- Check in Start\All Programs to see if your computer provider has installed their own backup program,
- Contact your computer provider to find out how you are supposed to backup your computer if they have hidden the #@$%ed backup program,
- Simply use copy and paste to create a 'backup folder' and then copy its contents to your backup media, (my option of choice) or
- Buy a third party backup program.
