Backing up?

[Bokuwakakera]

I know this sounds newbish, but how do I back up my computor?

I am haveing a problem with my Shortcut icons and my start bar not showing up, and after hours on the phone with dell tech support they want me to re-install windows, and that means all my programs and song are going to be dealeted, so I figure if I back up, then my stuff will be saved.

Is there any hope of this happening?

 

[Osiris]

copy and paste whatever you want, send to CD-RW/CD-R, copy..you have now backed up your stop

 

[digitaloracle]

Make sure you verify the written data. One program that can do this is Md5summer. Jusrt arrange the data as it will be burn to the disc, sum it with that program (select the folder everythign is in, then in the two paned windows, hit select all, then add recursivly. include the sum file on the cd, and then run that file when the cd is burned to check your burn, then once you have your new install, cop the files and run it again, to be sure.

 

[Bokuwakakera]

I have thoughs 700mb CD-R disks, and my hard drive has over 30gb of stuff on it, I am going to need like 10 disks? or is there a way to fit it all on one disk?

 

[Osiris]

DVD or compress it, get a slave hdd

 

[Bokuwakakera]

Where might I find a program to compress the stuff?

whats a Slave Hdd?

 

[Defence]

I know this isn't the cheapest solution, but buy a 80gig or larger external USB hard drive like this and use Norton Ghost or True Image. It will make a clone of your hard drive and if it ever fails you just boot off the CD-ROM and restore... everything is intact including all your apps.

Yep, you're completely right.
If you purchase external HDD, it will serve you for a long time for best backup storage.
But if you don't have enough possibility to upgrade your PC with HDD. Hard Drive backup software is what you need to my mind.
I use it for backup purpose, as it creates an exact image of HDD, and allows restore whole hard drive as well as individual files and folders. Also I keep one copy on HDD and another on CD (due to highest level compression it takes not much space).
Good luck!

 

[Bokuwakakera]

what does HDD stand for? and where can I find a program to compress files?