How do you back up data on your computer with a cd?

Question

okay so i think that my computer has a virus and im really paranoid that my computer is going to crash any second.... i need to backup all my videos, music and pictures and some programs that i have onto a cd.... i bought a CD-RW.... is that the right one to buy?? if you tell me its not im going to scream.... haha well yea im totally clueless on how to put stuff onto a cd..... do i just copy and past? i need to back up everything so that i can reboot my computer.

-THANKS!! =]

to the first person: umm... what?? i dont get it.....

Answer 1

If you want to back up a heap of stuff you are best off with DVD RW. 4.3 GB against 700 mb!

You can't just drag and drop unless you have formatted the CD as UDF so it acts like another Hard Drive. You need a program like NERO to format the CD in the first place.

2 thingsI suggest:
1. for future reference, ALWAYS partition your Hard Drive so that you have about 20 GB for C Drive and Windows plus the programs you run. Keep all your data and movies etc on the D partition. If Windows crashes (which it chooses to do every now and then) you won't lose your files. DON'T store them in MY DOCUMENTS! To partition your HD you would have to back up your files firsst because you'll lose everything on the HD when you do it. Then you reinstall Windows on C Drive and put your files on D.

2. Go to: http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm?s_cid=sah and select FULL SCAN. This is a free tool provided by Microsoft that will sort out problems with your computer - most likely registry errors. It also removes any viruses and spyware and malaware that lurks on your computer, defrags the registry and your hard drive. It does not report to MS what is on your computer (if any Porn, they don't give a damn!) At the end it offers you the option to sharewith MS what errors were fixed - it does not do anything else.

If you can't back up your data to DVD then a second Hard Drive is just as good. Then you just select the files you want and cut and paste. In XP you can select the files and on the left side it says SEND TO and MOVE FILES - choose MOVE and it will do the cut and paste for you.

Failing this I suggest you seek a friend who can back them up for you. It is easy but if you don't have the software and know how to use it then you are behind the 8 ball.

Answer 2

You will probably need more than one CD, as it sounds like you have a lot of files.

Copying and pasting onto CD won't work, because data needs to be recorded onto a CD - they don't work in the same way as your hard disk. You will need a CD burning program such as Nero or Roxio. If your computer came with a CD or DVD RW drive then you should already have one installed on your computer. If you don't have a CD or DVD RW drive then you will not be able to burn CDs - instead you could buy a large USB memory stick. Put all the files you want to copy into one folder, press control and A to select them all and see how many mb (or possibly gb) they take up, then you'll know what size to buy. If you have a DVD RW drive then you should buy a DVD RW disk rather than a CDRW one, DVD RW's are much larger.

Move all the files you want to copy into one folder on the desktop so they're easy to find. Launch whatever burning program you have and you should have a range of options, such as data, audio and so on. You want data, so select that option. There should be a task pane that has a list of folders where you select what files you want to copy. Through this window, navigate to your copy folder on the desktop open it and select all of them. If you have too many files you will either be told so, and asked to remove some or your CD burning program will automatically assume you have more than one CDRW to burn it onto.

Once you've selected all your files click burn (or record, or something along those lines) and the program will start to record onto CD.

Answer 3

Ok here we go! Open a file you wish to backup, you can do this by just opening something like My Pictures or searching for a particular file but if you do do a search once the file you want is displayed right click it then click open containing folder. Highlight all the files you wish to backup if there is more than one file on the page then place your pointer just under one on the left or right and right click while dragging your mouse, a purple line should appear, go all the way to the file furtherest from the starting point then move either up or down the page highlighting everything as you go, then on the left of the page you will see "Tasks" underneath that you will see "copy all items to CD" click that, put in a blank disk and away you go but be sure your copying enough to fill the disk as once you start you can't add more to that disk so another is required for any other files you wish to copy. As for buying CD- or+ WR disks they are only required if you wish to reuse them further down the track, think of it as a blank Video, you can tape over and over it but a non WR disk you can't do this. Hope this helps. ;-)

Answer 4

by write it on the cd by cd writer

Answer 5

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