Backing up your computer is something that everyone wants to do yet we find that very few actually carry out any type of back up! In this tutorial we will look at both of the following points.

• What you should aim to backup.
  
• What you need to carry out a backup.
  
• Where is the best place to store your backup?

Please note however this tutorial is for educational purposes only and will back up files that you have stored (such as music, pictures, text documents and so on) computer settings, software and so on require more information to which is out of the scope of this tutorial.
What You Should Aim To Back Up In my opinion the most important stuff we store on the computer is the type we cannot replace, such as pictures, however you should really aim to back up any or all of the following on a regular basis.

• Pictures
• Music
• Films
• Personal Documents (World, Excel etc)

The reason for this is simple, you can replace software easily by re-installing it, however you cannot go and take your photos again, and it will take you time to re-create your documents, movies and anything you have taken the time to create! When should you carry Out a Backup? The best and easiest way is to create 2 copies of everything, one on your computer you use and a copy on your removable drive (explained later), this way you never have long spells where you are copying data.
If however you feel this is too much, you should back up your data at least once a week to ensure that if anything happens to your pc you will lose minimal data if any! What You Need To Carry Out A Backup! Despite what many people think you do not need a whole load of equipment, and tons of complicated software in order to create simple back up of your data, a simple USB device of your choice is adequate in order to complete the tasks with no additional software, I would advise one of the following in order to create your backup.

• External Hard Drive
• USB Flash Drive
• Re-Writeable CD/DVD

Out of the 3 I would personally advise you opt for the external hard drive for the following reasons

• Cheap to Set Up
• Reliable
• Easy to move around
• Ample storage for multiple backups
• Easy to overwrite (save data over data)
• Quick read/right operations

You can use any media you like to store you back up however ensure you can completely remove the media from your computer and store it away from the PC.
Where to Store Your Backup! Many people will create a backup on a separate slave drive connected to the pc, although this is OK if your master drive fails, it can still cause you issues if your pc is hit by power surges, dropped or damaged.
For this reason it is always advisable to build your back up on a device that is not usually connected to your computer and store it away from the PC, you can even create 2 backups and store one away from your home! Either way having a backup not connected to your pc you can access it anywhere, be confident that if your computer suffers severe damage you will still keep your personal data