Backing up my computer

Is there an easy way to do this??? After losing my hard drive, am a bit paranoid....[] How often should it be done, and how much data will I need to store? Can it go on a CD, or will I need my USB drive?

Ta

We bought an external hard drive and back up to that. The added bonus is that the data can be taken to any computer at any time.

I tend to think that you only need to back up important files you want to keep - so I do it now & then onto rewritable CDroms (or a USB flashdrive - it's mostly pictures & a few documents I want to keep.

I use a USB flashdrive just for documents and photos. The key was to resize all the photos, as otherwise it got a bit full a bit quick. The other option is to be ruthless about what photos I actually care about keeping, and put them in a separate folder, and only copy that folder onto the USB

Just be careful that you have a third backup if you are using an external HD. I put all my Uni docs and my photos on to an external HD and then the HD went 'phut' and all my data was unrecoverable (unless I wanted to pay someone $750 to do it ) - It was quite a devastating lesson to learn.

I have a new external HD but can't for the life of me work out how to save stuff to cd because it always comes up with some bs about formatting my disc and then spits the cd back at me - It is currently in the 'too hard' basket until I can get a friend to come over and help me.

Louise W;175046 wrote: Just be careful that you have a third backup if you are using an external HD.

Yes, very good advice. I use rewritable DVDs as a third backup.

Louise W;175046 wrote: I have a new external HD but can't for the life of me work out how to save stuff to cd because it always comes up with some bs about formatting my disc and then spits the cd back at me

If you use rewritable CDs or DVDs they do need to be formatted first.

In the case of DVDs, this is generally done by using Nero or similar, depending on what software was bundled with your DVD drive.

If you are using rewritable CDs, Windows can do the job for you. Just insert the disc and a window should pop up, asking what you want to do.