Backing up your data should be at the top of your list of things to do when you're on a computer.
Okay, perhaps surfing for that cool dog jacket for your pooch or finding out what happened to the person in high school you never liked might jump ahead of data backups but the point should be made that backing your data is important.
Backing up your data is easy.
There are a number of methods to do it and we'll walk you through it one by one.

1. Thumb drive.
   Thumb drives are downright cheap.
   Someone at a trade show less than a year ago gave me a 1GB thumb drive just for visiting his corner of the show.
   I'm a writer and even I don't have more data than 1GB can fill.
   It used to be that I could fill up a floppy, then a 3.
   5 inch and now even 1GB is a bit small.
   For most of you, 1GB will be overkill.
   The process for backing it up is simple.
   Navigate to your directory, insert the thumb drive, then copy all the files from your hard drive onto the thumb drive.
   A simple copy and past will work fine.
   Depending on the number of files and their sizes, it could take seconds or a few minutes.
   If you can, store the thumb drive in a different building than where your computer is so that if a fire or water were to damage your system, your data is safely stored elsewhere.
   
2. CD or DVD.
   CDs hold about 700MB of data.
   DVDs hold up to 4GB of data.
   Plop your CD or DVD into your computer's writable disk drive, then follow the instructions that display on your screen.
   Your computer will probably have already loaded the software necessary to run the disk backup.
   Store this CD or DVD elsewhere.
   
3. Lastly, there's the online method of backing up data.
   This has gotten easier over the last two years.
   Once it is set up, it will back up your data without you even knowing that it is being done.
   You can set it to upload your files every day, every week, or every month.
   Schedule it to back up your hard drive every morning at 2 a.
   m.
   and you'll never know it.
   This is the most expensive method but provides the best possible means of recovering your files if something were to happen.
   

Everyone should back up their data at least weekly, and depending on how often you create more data, a few times weekly.