what to know how to back up your computer hard drive

The steps below describe the best way to setup regular, automated data backups. In short, going to the extra effort of following the 3 steps below will minimize your chance of losing data. There are times however, when performing a fast backup is a good idea.
If you're upgrading Vista to window 7 or reformatting your hard drive, performing a quick backup is a good way to avoid data loss if problems occur.

Quick Backup Guide

Option 1:

1. Connect a large external hard drive to your computer.
2. Carefully locate all of your documents, e-mail, music, movies, bookmarks, etc and copy those files to the new hard drive.
3. It is impossible to copy applications. You must reinstall them from their source disks or download them again from the Internet.

Option 2:

1. Use Acronis True Image (described below) to create a complete image of your hard drive.
2. This is the best way to ensure that you don't lose any data.
3. While you will still need to copy your documents, e-mail, music, etc to an external hard drive if you're upgrading your operating system, creating a full system image will allow you to revert to your original setup (ie: go back to where you started) without any hassle.