What's it mean to backup files and programs?

Question

I've had a compter for years but have never backed anything up. Whats the purpose? How do I do it?

Answer 1

Backup is something that you should regularly do with files that are important to you,for example some job files, school files, your work, music, videos, I mean anything that you would be very sorry to loose if there is any problem on your PC (and it is not so rare to happen) when there is no possibility to take out the files, and people from the service will just erase everything and reinstall operating System, reinstall your programs and start from zero on your HDD. There are plenty of ways to do it. One is to buy a writable CD (700MB free space), or better writable DVD (because it has much more free space - 4.7GB). Select files that are for backup and write them on the CD/DVD. You can use Nero program for that. As you have never done it, the first time you do it you might need several CD/DVDs and it depends of the quantity of the files that you will backup. I can last sometimes an hour or two, if there is a lot of things to backup. Next time you do it, backup just the files that were changed or were added to your PC HDD. It will be much faster and you can sleep well after that without worrying about loosing important files. It is very recommended to do the backups from time to time, depending on the number of files that are added or changed.
There are so me other ways of making backup copies of your hard disk, using specialized software for that or some added application within the Windows. I haven't been usung these options so I cannot say if it is more easy that the procedure I have just explained.

Regards!

Answer 2

Sometimes computers will set aside an allocated spot on your hard drive that is specifically reserved for your back ups. New computers don't even come with Master Hard drives any more if you ever need to reformat your computer the reformatting process is stored in your new PC.
As for any other backups just download what you want to make a backup of on a floppy disk, CD, or any other portable memory. And when next you reformat your PC just reinstall the files onto your computer.

Answer 3

Back program means to store ur essential datas, files on cd, dvds and on hard discs. If u face any problems future then these program will help u to recover ur lost files. Norton ghost is a powerful backup programs which can able to backup ur entire partition or ur operating system in a single file. When ever ur computer is affected by virus then this will restore ur os to normal state in just few minutes and u don't need to load the operating system.

Answer 4

Backing up data means to save your important files onto a different media at your choice (CDs, DVDs, external drive). In case your hard drive crashes you don't lose valuable files for you (pictures, documents, videos, etc.) Here's a more detailed article about data backup: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/data/what.mspx