If you own a computer and you have personal data on it, then you need to be backing up.
There are many ways to backup your PC, however in this article I'm going to talk about just one of those ways - Backing up your files with an external hard drive.
Let's cover the requirements: - Windows 2000, XP, Vista or Windows 7.
- Administrative access to your PC (don't worry, you probably already have this).
- You know what you want to backup.
These would be items like pictures, music, documents, desktop items and favorites.
- You have at least 1 free usb 2.
0 port on your PC.
- You have an external drive complete with ac adaptor (if your drive requires it) and usb 2.
0 cable.
- You have saved all open files and closed any open applications (like word or excel).
There are two basic ways to backup data to a hard drive: manual and automatic.
I'm going to be discussing the manual backup process of personal files.
Let's get started.

1. Turn on your PC and login.
   
2. Connect your drive to your PC with the supplied USB 2.
   0 cable.
   If your drive requires external power from and AC adaptor then plugin that in to.
   
3. The external hard drive will automatically be installed, mounted and given a drive letter.
   
4. Let's take a look at the drive.
   On Windows XP open "My Computer".
   On Windows Vista open "Computer".
   You should now see your external hard drive as an additional drive.
   Typical drive letters would be E:\, F:\, G:\, H:\ or K:\
5. Now that we've established that the drive is loaded in Windows we can begin copying data to it.
   
6. Backing up a file to an external hard drive is an easy process.
   Open your external drive, select the files and folders that you want to backup and drag them to the external hard drive.
   The files will now be copied to the external hard drive essentially backing them up.
   
7. Most of your critical data is located in about 3-6 folders:
   • for Windows 2000 and XP: C:\Documents and Settings\"your user name"\.
     Backup the folders listed below.
     Remember, in order to backup the folders listed below all you need to do is drag the folders to your external hard drive and wait for them to be copied:
     • My Documents
     • Desktop
     • Favorites
   • for Windows Vista: C:\Users\"your user name"\ Backup the folders listed below:
     • Documents
     • Pictures
     • Desktop
     • Music
     • Videos
     • Favorites
   • Depending on the amount of data that you have your backup could take hours or even days to finish.
     

For most people, backing up personal data is just one of those things that they'll never do until they've been burned by a hard drive failure.
You don't have to be one of them, backup those files before it's too late!