This first lesson focuses on safety. If the worst happened -- which on a computer usually means losing everything on the hard disk -- would you be able to recover everything you needed? In this lesson, you find out how to make sure you can recover your information.

There are three ways to make a backup:

• Copy files to another disk: This is the simplest method. Drag-and-drop the files to another disk, such as a floppy, a Zip disk, a writeable CD, another hard disk, or even a network drive. If you ever need them again, drag-and-drop them back again.
• Use a backup program: Backup programs work with ordinary drives or with tape drives; they back up a whole list of files at once from different locations, and they compress them to save space. When you need a backed-up file, you must run the same backup program again to restore.
• Mirror the drive: You can make an exact copy of the entire hard drive onto a same-size-or-larger hard drive. This requires a utility such as Norton Ghost or Drive Image, neither of which comes with Windows.

Some people consider it overkill to mirror the drive. You don't need to back up program files because you should have the CDs for them and can reinstall them if needed. In addition, if it's a program you downloaded, you can download it again.

Microsoft Backup is very good, and very complete in backing up not only data files, but also settings such as Favorites, desktop icons, and cookies.

Microsoft Backup

If you have Windows XP Professional, Backup is installed by default. To run it, select Start > All Programs > Accessories >System Tools > Backup.

If you have Home Edition, you must first do the following to install Microsoft Backup:

1. Insert your Windows XP Home Edition CD in your drive.
2. Navigate to the \VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP folder on the CD.
3. Double-click Ntbackup.msi.

Microsoft Backup runs in Wizard mode by default; you simply follow the prompts to back up or restore. There are advanced modes where you can select exactly which files to back up, but this course covers only the simple method.

Depending on the contents of your My Documents folder, you may need a lot of disk space for backing it up. Backup can split the backup file between multiple removable disks if needed, so you can use removable disks with less capacity per disk than you need for the total backup job.

Use the following steps to back up your documents and settings:

1. Select Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup. The Backup or Restore Wizard runs. Click Next to begin.
2. Click Back up files and settings, and then click Next.
3. Click My documents and settings, and then click Next.
4. In the Choose a place to save your backup box, enter the path to the desired location. (You can click Browse to locate it if desired.) If you're backing up to a drive, type the drive letter here.
5. In the Type a name for this backup box, type a name for the backup file set, and then click Next.
6. Click Finish, and then wait for the backup to complete. The Backup Progress dialog box appears as the backup is occurring, as shown in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1: Backup Progress dialog box.

7. When the Backup Progress box reports Backup is complete, click Close.

If you ever need to restore your backup, you first want to bring the computer up to an operational state if something is wrong with it. That may mean reloading Windows. When everything seems to be working okay, use these steps to restore your backup:

1. Select Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup. The Backup or Restore Wizard runs. Click Next.
2. Click Restore files and settings, and then click Next.
3. Double-click an item on the left to see its contents, mark the checkbox for the folder or drive you want to restore, and then click Next.
4. Click Finish. The restore process begins.
5. When the restore is complete, click Close.

Pretty simple stuff, huh? This method is the simple one; there are also advanced options and settings that give you more control. Experiment with these on your own if desired. For example, you can select which files to back up, which is useful if you store your data files in some other location than My Documents.