How to Backup Your Computer if You Are Using Vista

March 22nd, 2008 | by admin |

With each version of the Windows operating systems the backup process has been improved. In earlier versions I relied on third backup solutions. With the Vista operating system, I found that the backup program that comes with Vista is reliable, and there is no need to buy another backup program.

The statements above are true if you are backing up your data on a USB external drive. I have an external drive 250Gb and I save my computer at least once a month. You can use the DVD, but you should use several DVDs.
If you have a home network, you can also save one computer to another. If you only have a wireless network, I would not recommend because it will be a slow process.

To begin the backup process, click on the Start menu and select All Programs, then select the folder Accessories, then System Tools folder and click on Backup State and the menu setup. You have three options here:

Backup Files

Restore Files

Complete PC Backup

The backup files is useful when you want to save your data only. No program or operating files will be saved. It would be a good thing if you have the Vista DVDs and CDs for all of your applications. There would therefore simply re-install the operating system and applications, and then restore your data.

You can also set it to automatic and as long as the device back to you is connected, it will perform the backup automatically.

Restore files if you needed to restore the files of stage one of the questions above. Restore files will allow you to retrieve a file, or make a backup copy on another computer, or restore files made from this computer.

The Complete PC Backup will copy the entire contents of your hard drive. Usually, I save my computer once a month using data as the file name. You choose the merits Complete PC Backup and click Create a backup now. Make sure the hard drive that you save on is attached. It will take some time to make a backup of your system, but I prefer safe than sorry.

Advanced Restore allows you to transfer the entire contents of your backup to a new disk or computer. This is done by the Advanced option rehabilitation after you click the Restore files.

Save on another computer running Vista may cause problems with Windows authentication. If it is only the hard drive that is different, you will need to re-authenticate the computer, but it can be done in about ten minutes.

Everyone thinks they are safe until their computer no longer works. Hard drives fail on 35% of computers in the first year. Why take a chance. Be sure to back up your computer today.

There is also the online backup available on the websites. Some are inexpensive. If something happened to the backup device, you are still out of luck. Having an online backup could be the right solution because these companies have a lot of redundancy.

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