Your Computer Is As Good As Its Last Backup

 Introduction
 
Just imagine that you are hustling to finish your project or have just completed it and confidently saved it on your computer and the unthinkable happens – yes, your computer crashes. It cuts off just like that and refuses to boot. Perhaps the project was your final thesis! Now you are desperate and wished you had a magic wand to wave your computer back up and running. Well there is such a magic wand. It is called a backup. You don’t have to purchase expensive backup software or spend hours searching for free software that can do the job. Right on your computer has a simple yet very powerful backup program that can backup your entire system with all your data. This backup can be used to restore your system to its prior state before the crash.







What You Need

All you basically need is a floppy disk and a floppy drive to put it in, the CD that you used to create Windows Operating System (e.g. your windows Xp CD) and somewhere to store the backup. If you don’t have a floppy drive, because new computers and laptops don’t usually come with one, you can use a USB floppy drive. The backup procedure which I shall explain  is specifically for Windows Xp. 

Backing Up Your Desktop

You may access the backup program by clicking on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Backup.

Then you will see the “Welcome to the Backup or Restore Wizard” dialogue box:

Click “Next” which brings you to a choice between “Back up files and settings” or “Restore files and settings”. Choose “Back up files and settings” and click “Next”. 

 Then choose “All information on this computer” and click “Next" 

 

 Now you come to the place where you have to choose where to place the backup, "Backup Type, Destination, and Name". You must choose a place where there is plenty of space because your backup may be many gigabytes. Saving it on your computer’s hard drive will be fine. You cannot use a DVD disk because this is not a burning program. Click on “Browse…”. The “Save as” window will come up. You will see all the places you can put your backup. I chose “desktop”. Then click “Save”. Now you must type a name for your backup. Any name will do. The box should look something like the following. Click “Next”.

Now you come to the following box, "Completing the Backup or Restore Wizard".  Click “Finish” and the computer will take it from there and complete the backup.

When it is finished, it will prompt you to put in a floppy diskette so that information about your system state can be written to it. Note: You can copy and paste the backup to your flash drive (if it has the space of course) or burn it to a DVD if it is very small