How to Backup Your Windows 7 Based Computer

How to Backup Your Windows 7 Based Computer
By Delores Evans

Don't lose your important data and files. Don't be the victim of a hard drive crash or viruses/malware/spyware.You need to backup your files on a regular basis. It is a good habit to get into. My phrase is don't delay, backup today.

First you will need to figure out where you have your important files. Most of the time it will be in your Documents folder or on your desktop. Sometimes you may have put data in other locations and you can do a search for those files.
Before you start doing your backup make sure you close all open programs that contain data you want to backup.

Here are the basic procedures on how to backup Windows 7 with the built in backup utility.

Click the Start button, select Control Panel, then select "Back up your computer" under the tab "System and Security."

Step 1: Back up your computer.

If you've never backed up this computer before, click "Set up backup" and let the wizard guide you. You may have to have administrator permissions to do this and if you are on a work network, hopefully the network administrator has a network based backup regime. If you don't have administrator permissions, you can ask your network administrator to do the backups for you.

I would recommend that you use a usb flash drive for the backup and make sure you store the usb drive in a secure physical location.

Most users can let the windows wizard choose which files and folders to back up, but if you have some extras files, pictures in locations that you had to search for, now is the time to add them.

Step 2: Select files and folders.
You can also choose to schedule regular backups, which I would recommend that you definitely do daily backups.Depending on your needs, choose Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. This is important to make sure that you have regular backups.

Step 3: Schedule regular backups.
Windows will configure the backup and get started.It will take a while for the first time backup due to the fact that there are allot of files.

Step 4: Backup is in progress.The screen will show the current backup in progress

That seems very simple. Don't risk losing your data, Don't Delay backup today. Don't put it off, you don't want to lose valuable data, better safe than sorry.

If you ever need to do a restore of your file(s) look for an upcoming article on how to do the restore of the files. The wizard on Windows 7 backup is very easy to follow.

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