Computer problems and failures always happen at the most unexpected and unfortunate times. What would you do if you suddenly lost all of the data on your hard drive? Financial information? Irreplaceable family photos and videos?
These are questions that most computer users do not think about until it happens. If these questions have you thinking, the only way to prevent this from happening is by performing regular backups of your hard drive as often as possible.
Computers are susceptible to many types of problematic issues that could destroy your data. You could accidentally delete files that you later find out are important. Or, you could contract viruses and malware, many of which can cripple your computer and to the point that you have to reformat and completely restore your drive to blank settings and start from scratch.
Or you could experience a hard drive crash. Or hard drive failure. What if someone steals your computer, or you experience a natural disaster?
It is situations like these that explain why regularly backing up your hard drive is so important.
Many computers users do not perform this task, most often because of a lack of knowledge about how to even start, but this task isn’t as daunting as it may seem.
To start, you should just make sure that you have an external hard drive or an online storage solution to store the backup files from your PC.
There are many different ways to perform backups, so you should feel comfortable to choose one that is the easiest solution for your needs.
Depending on what version of Windows you are using, the built-in backup tool should prove fairly easy to use. If you are using Windows XP, you can perform your backup in as few as 6 steps. If you’re running the latest version, Windows 7, Microsoft has a great support section about backing up and restoring your Windows 7 PC. They even have suggestion on what backup setting you should use to maximize your disk space.
It is very important to perform regular backups, and with these tips and tutorials, you can get started backing up your important files easily. Don’t get stuck saying, “I wish I did!”