Back up PC hard drive
 

What is the best was to back up my hard drive and save all data.....

My CP is running very slow and I think I need a new CP or new processor and/or hard drive....

Advice will be appreceiated.

Bryant

what is it, type,age brand. Have you ever cleaned it up?

Pick up an external USB hard drive. Under $100 and some come with backup software included.

If things are slow be sure you are not infected with something or else your backup will also be infected!

Thanks.....I'll check it out. I have a Virus programs on the maching...scans daily...I assume their is no virus...

I have a virus protection program on it therefore, I assume it virus free...

By clean..I assume you refer to Virus or such.....it is clean inside...ie: dust and such free...

Thanks

This is good advice. Also, the main reason I back up with an external hard drive is to guard against a hard drive crash. Way too much time and money invested in my hard drive contents to lose it if the hard drive goes south! Backup gives me security if that happens.

One additional bit of advice.

USB hard drives are getting so cheap I would recommend getting one at least twice the size of your main hard drive. I use Acronis backup software and it makes a complete backup, a data only backup and a running change backup. The complete and data backups are done at scheduled intervals and I found that you need to remember to delete older backups to make room for new ones or the new ones will not be created. The larger the backup drive the more backups that can be stored before you need to delete older ones.

Thanks very much....I 'll do this...

Mechanical hard drives fail, i've had a couple in the last 20 years. Although i have my hard drive back up every 5 hours automically, all my important files are stored on Flash drives, and "The Cloud"

Another, although more complicated and also more rewarding option is to take a whole base system back up. Which will allow you to restore not just your own data files but the whole operating system as well. Ideally this would be done when you first get your computer and have loaded all the additional necessary software. Once you have your base image created, you can then follow the external hard drive backup procedure (mentioned above) for your personal files. It is a tremendous feeling knowing that you can return the computer to its original condition, if something major should happen. Symantec GHOST is the software that I use for base image system creation. I handle my offices' desktop support and actively use GHOST to manage current pc's as well as new rollouts. It would be beneficial to do some research on this software as well as Acronis if you are interested in this type of backup.