Wow, what a great question. We wish more people would take such an interest
in backing up. It's the single most important thing you can do to ensure
problem-free computing.
Backup is a huge topic that is way beyond the limited scope of a newsgroup
posting. The Internet is filled with good information about backing up, and
I encourage you to read as much as you can on the subject. For a new user,
PC World Online (
www.pcworld.com) will start you off in the right direction.
What follows is a very general introduction:
At a minimum, you need to backup your personal files. That means your
documents, spreadsheets, photos, music and videos. All you need to do is to
copy them to recordable CDs. Do this often, so you'll always have recent
copies of your personal files. You can save time by not backing up what
already exists elsewhere. For example: If you transferred a music CD to your
computer, there's no need to backup that if you own the CD.
For most people, the next thing to backup is their email address book and
their e-mail messages. For this you may consult Tom Koch, the unheralded
master of backing up Outlook Express. Find his instructions at Inside
Outlook Express (
http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/). You may also want to
backup your Favorites. This is most easily done within Internet Explorer: Go
to File > Import and Export and 'export' your Favorites to My Documents.
Now, your Favorites will be backed up every time you backup the contents of
My Documents.
At this point, you'll want to consider something more sophisticated than
just copying files to CDs. Time to look for backup software. There is a ton
of this available. To sort things out, look for reviews in the popular
computer e-zines, such as PC World and PC Magazine (
www.pcmag.com) and CNet
(
www.cnet.com). Backup software will make backing up more convenient; if
it's more convenient you'll be glad to do it more often. Windows has its own
backup software - called ntbackup - but it doesn't backup directly to CDs.
The next step is to backup your software, meaning Windows and all your
applications. Some backup software can do this, but the best way to go is
with something called 'disk imaging' software. Disk imaging gets rather
complicated, so you may want to wait until you have more experience before
trying it. Basically, an image is a bit-by-bit exact copy of your entire
hard disk. You can image your entire hard disk in minutes and restore it
just as quickly. It's the ultimate backup solution. Look at Ghost 9.0 by
Symantec and True Image 8.0 by Acronis.
System Restore is not a method of backing up. System Restore creates restore
points, which contain your registry and some essential system and user
files. The idea behind System Restore is to restore enough of the essential
guts of Windows to get you back to the user interface if you run into
trouble. From the user interface you can troubleshoot (hopefully) whatever
caused your problem in the first place.
When you need to backup your registry, just create a restore point. If there
is a problem with your registry or with one of the system or user files
contained in a restore point, you can quickly replace them with known good
copies. Don't use a restore point that is more than a few days old: the
mixture of old registry entries and new files can destabilize your system.
