Backing up Your Data - Windows Backup

Windows Backup is a rarely used, yet very effective method of backing up important work documents from one location to another. It's free and easy to use.

Before you can even think about creating a backup of your data, you have to get your files into some sort of order. This simply means making sure that all of your essential data files are stored in one easy-to-find location.

Window XP makes this task easier by giving every user account its own personal 'profile', which consists of a set of subfolders in the 'Documents and Settings' folder. Your profile holds your personal files (in the My Documents folder), Outlook Express e-mail messages, Internet Explorer Favourites and cookies, and information about your settings and preferences.

If you have personal data stored in other folders on your system, consider moving it into the My Documents folder to make backing up easier (or at the very least putting it into several main folders, which will making backup up more simple).

Once you know where all of your important data files are stored, you're ready to begin.

If you use Windows XP Professional, the Windows Backup utility (Ntbackup.exe) should be already installed, ready for use. If you use Windows XP Home Edition, you'll need to follow these steps to install the utility:

1. Insert your Windows XP Home CD into the drive and, if necessary, double-click the CD icon in My Computer.
2. On the "Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP" screen, click "Perform Additional Tasks".
3. Click "Browse this CD".
4. In Windows Explorer, navigate to ValueAdd>Msft>Ntbackup.
5. Double-click 'Ntbackup.msi' to install the Backup utility.

To start the Windows Backup:

1) Click Start, and go to All Programs>Accessories>System Tools, and then click 'Backup' to start the wizard.

(By default, the Backup utility uses a wizard that makes the backup process straightforward, if you're not confident doing things manually, just continue with the Wizard).

2)Click 'Next' to go to the next screen, choose "Back up files and settings" from the second page, and then click Next.

This will bring you to your first decision point, as shown below:

What to backup?
You might be tempted to click "All information on this computer" to backup everything, but you should think twice before choosing this option. If you've installed lots of software, your backup could add up to many, many gigabytes. For most people, the "My documents and settings" option is the best choice. This selection preserves your data files (including e-mail messages and address books) and all your personal settings stored in the Windows Registry.

If several people use the computer, and there are a few user accounts, select "Everyone's documents and settings". This option backs up the personal files and preferences for each user account on the computer.

If you have data files stored outside of your profile folder, click "Let me choose what to back up". This option will take you to the "Items to Back Up" page as shown below:

This page will let you specify the exact folders and files you wish to backup, and gives you a lot of flexibility (useful if you don't want to backup a specific folder that you know will be very large, a large 'My Music' folder for instance, in this case you can just clear the checkmark beside the 'My Music' folder, and it won't be backed up.).

Where to store the Backup?
The Backup utility will now ask you to specify a backup location and a name for the backup. By default, Backup suggests saving everything to your floppy drive (drive A:\). These days this is far from the best choice, as you would need hundreds, if not thousands of floppy disks in some cases to backup all your data!

Instead of the floppy drive, you should click "Browse" and choose one of the following locations:

• A separate hard disk partition from the one you're backing up. If your hard disk is partitioned into two drives, drive C: and drive D:, and your data is on C:, you can thus backup to drive D:
• A removable media drive, such as a Zip Drive or a large Flash media drive. (*note* - Unfortunately, Windows Backup can't save files directly to a CD-RW or DVD-RW drive
• A shared network drive. This is often a good choice if you're on a network, as the data transfer speed will be very fast, and you're only limited by the amount of free space on the network share.
• An external hard disk drive. USB and FireWire drives are relatively inexpensive these days, so buying a cheap USB hard disk drive and dedicating it for use as a backup device is now a feasible and simple solution.

After you've chosen a backup location, enter a descriptive name for the file, click Next, and then click Finish to begin backing up immediately.

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Navigation:

• Backing up your Data
  • Backing up your Registry
  • Backing up your system files with Microsoft System Restore
  • Making a backup of your documents using Windows Backup
  • Making a full backup image of your hard disk