Backing up your computer

Backing up (copying the information) your computer regularly is important as the harddisk in your computer is a moving part and can go wrong. If it does, you might loose all of the information on you computer, so having backups can save a lot of hassle.

This guide will take you through backing up your entire computer to CD as if you’re going to reinstall you computer (see reinstalling your computer (reinstall.doc)), though you can back up individual bits (usually My Documents) to keep important files (school work, important letters etc) or files with sentimental value (usually digital photos) safe in case something goes wrong.

The most important things to back up are:

• My Documents
• Desktop
• Email address book
• Favourites
• Emails

All of these will need to be copied to a CD or DVD, but the best way to start is to put them in a folder on the desktop.

1. Close or minimise all the windows on the desktop so you can see your background. Click the right mouse button and left click on new -> folder from the menu which appears.
2. a new folder will be created on the desktop, looking something like this:

The blue text means that the name can be changed. Rename the folder to something like system backup, by typing this and click off it. The text will change to standard black writing.

1. Double click on the system backup folder to open it.
2. Right click in the folder and, as in part 1., create a new folder for each of the items mentioned above. (my documents, desktop etc)

You now need to find and copy everything into the folders.

My Documents

1. Open My Documents so you can see all of your files.
2. type Ctrl+A (Ctrl and A both at the same time) to select all of the files.
3. type Ctrl+C to copy the contents
4. shut my documents
5. double click on the system backup folder then my documents folder created above
6. type Ctrl+V to paste the contents of my documents to the backup folder.

All of your files and from My Documents will be copied into this folder.

Desktop

The desktop is likely to contain a combination of system items (my computer, recycle bin etc), shortcuts to programs (with a small arrow  as part of the picture) and files and folders. You need to copy the files and folders that you want. The shortcuts are pointers to programs and, if moved to a new reinstalled computer, probably won’t work.

To copy the files and folders:

1. Select the first file or folder by clicking on it with the left mouse button.
2. To select more files or folders, hold down Ctrl on the keyboard, and left click on each of the other files you want. Holding Ctrl allows you to select multiple items.

1. Once you’ve selected all of your files and folders, type Ctrl+C to copy
2. go to the desktop folder in system backup (as in part 5 of My Documents above).
3. type Ctrl+V to paste the files into this folder.

Email address book

If you use outlook express for email, you’ll have an address book with all of your contacts as part of this. To back this address book up:

1. Load Outlook express
2. Click on Addresses at the top of the Outlook express window
3. This will open the address book. Click on File then export then Address Book (WAB)
4. A window with the heading Select Address book file to export to will open. Click Desktop on the side, then double click system backup and then Email address book to get into the folder you created.
5. Type your name into the File name box, and click Save to save it. This will store all of your addresses.

Favourites

Saving your favourites from Internet Explorer is useful as you can move all of your saved web sites to your fixed computer

1. Open My Computer from the start menu
2. Double click the Hard Disk Drive labelled something (C:). (The (C:) bit is the important bit).
3. Double click on:

• Documents and settings
• Your username  (this is shown at the top of your start menu)
• favourites ()

You should now be in a folder containing, amongst others, the folder Favourites, with the picture of a star

4. Left click on the star, and type Ctrl+C to copy
5. go to the Favourites folder in system backup as above
6. type Ctrl+V to paste your favourites into this folder.

Emails

If you use outlook express for email, you’ll probably be storing you emails on your computer. If you want to keep them, you can export them and re-import them into the reinstalled computer.

1. Open Outlook Express.
2. Click on the tools and select options
3. Click the maintenance  Tab and then click on Store Folder

You now see the location of your Mail Folder.

4. Highlight the Folder Location and type Ctrl+C to copy the location.
5. Click Cancel and then Cancel again to close all boxes.
6. Click Start and the Run. In the open box press Ctrl+V to paste the mail location, then click OK.

You should now have a window containing you e-mail database files.

7. Type Ctrl+A to select all of the files.
8. Type Ctrl+C to copy them
9. Go to the emails folder system backup as above.
10. type Ctrl+V to paste your emails into this folder.

You should now have all of your data saved into your System Backup folder. You finally need to burn (copy) this to a CD

1. Insert a blank CD into the computer
2. Wait and something similar to the following window will appear

3. Select open writeable CD folder using Windows Explorer and click OK
4. This will open a standard folder, with (probably) D:\ at the top.
5. Minimise this folder (left click on )
6. At this point we need to find out if everything will fit on the CD or DVD! Right click on the system backup folder, and click on Properties at the bottom of the menu. A window will appear looking something like this:

A CD will hold 700Mb, so if the number next to Size: is less than 700Mb the folder will all fit onto one disk. If it’s bigger, you’ll have to split it.

Assuming the Disk you have is big enough, left click on the system backup folder and type Ctrl+C to copy it.

7. re-open the CD writing window (left click on  on the task bar).
8. type Ctrl+V to paste the system backup folder into the CD/DVD window. Wait while everything’s moved to the folder.
9. To burn (write) this backup to CD, click on Write these files to CD in the top left corner of the window.

10. the following window will appear:

11. Type a name into the CD name: box, something you’ll remember, and then click on next. The CD will start to be written.
12. Once completed, you’ll see the following window:

13. Click on Finish, unless you want another copy of the CD, in which case click on the Yes, write these files to another CD box and click Next.

Your backup is now complete.