Al Lustie's Tips and Tricks

I wrote about the necessity of performing backups.  If you use a MAC it is pretty easy.  It comes with the Time Machine application.  Add an external hard disk, enter Time Machine and set it up.  The initial backup will backup your entire hard disk and may take a couple of days.  After that you want it to only back up those files which have changed -- it's called an "incremental backup".

On a Windows computer you have the built in program.  Get to it by going to the Start button, All Programs, Accessories and System Tools.  (It may be slightly different in Windows 7).

But you must either back it up manually OR use the Windows Scheduler.  There are easier ways.

Here is a link to a comparison chart:
http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/26/the-10-best-windows-backup-software-programs/ 

I have successfully used TRUE IMAGE for both backing up and restoring.   There are many other programs, some free, some quite expensive.  Do a search on "Windows Backup Software" to find possibiities that will help you.

One last word:  if you can manage an external hard drive large enough to do a full DISK IMAGE, everything including Windows, programs, etc -- do one of those when you get your computer set up, virus free, ready to use and save it somewhere safe.  If things go badly with a rootkit you cannot remove, etc., you may need to remove everything from your hard disk, and restore the disk image.  Then restore your data from another external hard drive.  This can save hours, even days.

Then let Windows Update bring your version of Windows up to date with security patches.  THEN make another disk image.  Get the idea?