Backing Up Files Etc.

[Mr-H]

I have just been given an external/mobile hard drive and want to use it for backing up my computer files, but I am not sure just how to do it. Do I just plug it in and then copy to the new drive? I have a sub-directory in 'users' and I was thinking about simply a 'copy & Paste' from that named directory to the new drive. Am I wrong?

[VHG]

The new drive will become a new drive letter, like E or F or whatever.

Copy and pasting your personal files to the external hard disk is one way of doing a backup. It is the simplest, and in fact that is the way I do it.

You can create a folder on your external hard drive that includes the date in the name of the folder, so for example "Backup 2013 11 18".

Then you know the date you did the backup.

Then a month later you can create another folder with another date, like "Backup 2013 12 18" and do another backup and so on.

Note there is some automated backup software built in to Windows (assuming you are using Windows). Just search the Windows help for "backup" and it should explain how to use it.

This Windows software will backup named files or folders on a regular basis.