To make it easier to backup your important files save them all in one central place, for example ‘My Documents'. You can create sub-folders in order to categorise your data. This way when you come to backup your files instead of hunting through your computer for all the important files all you need to do is backup one folder: ‘My Documents'.
There are different types of Backup:
Full Backup:
A Full Backup is simply backing up all files on the system.
Incremental Backup:
An Incremental Backup is a backup that backs up only the files modified since the last backup.
Differential Backup:
A Differential Backup is a cumulative backup of changes made since the last full backup.
Where to Backup?
Device |
Media Capacity |
Speed |
Comments |
3.5" Floppy Drive |
1.44 MB Removable Media |
Slow |
Nice for small amounts of data. Cheap and portable media. |
CD-R/W |
Up to 700 MB Removable Media |
Moderate |
Great backup device. Large backups will require multiple CDs. |
DVD-R/W, DVD+R/W |
Up to 4.7 GB Removable Media |
Moderate to Fast |
Just about the same as a CD-R/W but much larger. |
Hard Drive |
Ranging from 20GB to 300GB+ |
Fast |
You can install a second internal hard drive to backup your data. You could also have an External hard drive which is better as it can be moved around easily from one computer to another. |
ZIP® Drive |
100 MB or 250 MB |
Slow |
This is a large version of the floppy drive |
Tape Drive |
4GB to 110 GB |
Fast |
A great high-capacity removable media. Generally used by more sophisticated users. |
Internet Backup |
Unlimited storage available, but costs and Internet speeds impose practical limits |
Internet connection speed |
No devices to mess with. Most people have Internet connections. Data is off-site. All you need is a downloadable tool to backup your data. |
Printer |
Unlimited pages |
Moderate depending on printer speed |
Print all of your important documents. |
When to run your Backups?
- Scheduled Backups – You can set the computer to automatically run a backup every night, week or month.
- Manual Backup - This means that you'll run the backup yourself without any reminders.
How to backup:
Simply open 'My Documents' or the folder / file you would like to backup and copy and paste onto any of the backup routes outlined in the table above.
How to set up a recurring backup using the Windows backup tool
Click Start / Control Panel / Scheduled Tasks to open this window:
Double Click on ‘Add Scheduled Task'. This window should now come up.
Select ‘Backup' and click ‘Next'
Give the task a name and select how often you would like the backup to run and click ‘Next'
Then give the task a start time and the days of the week you would like the backup to run and click ‘Next'.
 Your backup should now run on the specified date and time. |
