Back Up Your Files with Windows 7′s Built-in Backup Utility

Open the Backup and Restore Center

Click Start → Control Panel → Back up your computer to open the Backup and Restore Center.

Select where you want to save your backup

Windows 7 will display all of the available backup devices, and your external drive should appear in this list. You can choose to back up to another hard drive, an external hard drive, a DVD or a network storage location. Click on the volume where your backup files should be saved.

What do you want to back up?

You can let Windows choose what to back up, in which case the OS will make a backup that includes files saved in the “Pictures”, “Music” and other such folders (which are called Libraries in Windows 7), as well as other default Windows folders. In the case that your system crashes, you can restore your computer from this backup file.

The other option is to choose your own files in which case you’ll be asked to browse a directory listing and check off which items/folders should be included in the backup. You can also choose to include a system image, which is a backup of the drives, system files and settings required for Windows to run. If you choose to make a system image, you can restore your computer in addition to retrieving your files in the event of data loss or a crash.

How often do you want to back up?

The next step is to configure a schedule for your backups — you can choose how often, on which day and at what time to run the backup. Consider how often you change or add new files when deciding how often to back up. As for the time of day, choose a time when you don’t expect anyone to be using the computer since running a backup will probably slow things down until the process completes. For example, I run my backup nightly at 1 AM.

Run your backup for the first time

The first time your backup operation kicks into gear, it’s going to have to copy all of the selected files and folders over to the external hard drive. If you have a large amount of data this can take a very long time, so think about configuring your backup and letting it run while you do something else. Once the first backup is complete, subsequent backup operations will go much quicker.

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