How to Back Up Your Computer Files

is your computer home to priceless documents, pictures, and videos? Are you worried that your computer may some day crash and you may lose everything? You might even catch a virus that deletes your favorite photos or ruins your hard drive. Since you can never fully depend on your computer, you always want to make sure you have backed up your hard drive and all your files in case the worst happens. It is awful when we accidentally lose one thing, imagine if you lost it all. Make sure it doesn't happen by following these tips. Learn about free online services to back up all your computer files as well as external hard drives in this article.

Instructions :

Step1

Determine How Much Space Do You Need?
The first step you must follow when you want to back up your computer files is to figure out how much space you will need to back up all your files. There are a few different ways you can do this. First, you need to decide if you want to back up every file on your computer or just back up a certain amount of files. If you want to back up your entire hard drive, you can find out how large your hard drive is by clicking on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop and then looking at the C drive. If you read across from left to right you can see the total size. This is the approximate size of your hard drive plus around 6 GB for the operating system system. If you want to back up everything, you will need a back up system with at least this much space. If you only want to back up certain files, you will need to find out how big those files are. Create a file called "Backup" and copy all of your important files into it. Then right click on the folder, choose "Properties," and then choose the general tab at the top. This will tell you the size of the folder. Either option will let you know how much space you would ideally want to back up.

Step2

Now Choose A Back Up Method!
The next step is to decide how you want to back up your computer files/hardware. You can choose either an external hard drive (which cost between $50-$200 depending on the size) or use an online backup service. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. An external drive is convenient because you can plug it into other computers and immediately transfer or copy files without needing the internet or having to worry at all about security. However you have to carry the drive with you and always face the remote possibility both your computer and the hard drive would break or that you lose the external at the same time that your computer fails. The second option is to use an online backup service like idrive.com. These services range in price depending on the amount of storage. Idrive.com is free up to 2 GB and then costs about $4.95 a month for a larger storage space. Not bad considering the safety of having all your files safe and secure. The advantage of an online service is that you can access your files from anywhere as long as their is internet and it is generally cheaper, especially for small amounts of service. Also, you don't need to carry or store another piece of equipment.

Step3

Now Set Up Automatic Back Ups!
This is the most important step! Once you have chosen your method of back up - either an online service or an external hard drive - you can not forget the most important step - SET UP AUTOMATIC BACK UPS! This is the most commonly missed step and if you don't do it it defeats the purpose of backing up your files. You need to set up an automatic back up at the minimum weekly to make sure you continually add new files to your storage space. You don't want to go through the process of backing everything up and then forget to do it for six months and lose everything!

Tips & Warnings :

• Back up regularly to ensure you save everything!
• Prepare for more space than you initially need so you can add files as you upgrade computers or add more photos/music
• If you plan on storing a lot of media (photos, videos, music) make sure to have a lot of space since those are large files
• This is also a great way to free up some memory on your computer so it runs faster. Store your largest files in an online service area or an external drive and your computer will run better!
• Make sure to choose a secure online service if you choose the online option!!

(Resources : ehow.com)