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Your PC’s hard drive could fail tomorrow, or a software bug could erase your files.
We also recommend using multiple types of
backups for maximum data security. For
example, if you store your sole backup drive
next to your computer, you’ll lose all copies of
your files if your hardware is ever stolen or
damaged in a fire. So having a backup in the
cloud is a good idea.
Back Up Your Files, Not Your Full System
There are two types of backups you can
create. Most common backup tools will back
up a list of files and folders you specify. This
allows you to back up just the files and
folders you need. Your backups won’t be any
larger than they need to be, and they’ll
complete quickly.
However, it’s also possible to create full
system image backup of your computer’s
hard drive using built-in or third-party tools.
These will back up everything, from your
Windows system directory and installed
program files to your personal data. These
backups will be much larger and take much
longer to create.
For most people, we recommend you stick
with just backing up your files and folders.
System image backups sound nice, but there
are some big catches. For example, you can’t
easily restore a system image on another
computer, as
a Windows installation will
generally only run properly on its original
system
. You’re better off just starting from a fresh
Windows installation and reinstalling your
programs.
System image backups have their place, but
avoid them unless you’re sure you need
them. They’re not the best general purpose
backup solution.
Files You Should Back Up
The most important thing is to back up your
personal files. On a modern Windows PC,
you’ll generally find these under C:\Windows
\USERNAME, where USERNAME is your user
account name.
By default, this directory contains your user
account’s data folders. These include the
Documents folder where your documents are
saved to by default, the Pictures folder that
likely contains any family photos you have,
the Downloads folder where files are
downloaded, the Music folder where your
music files are probably stored, and the
Videos folder where videos are stored. If you
use iTunes for your music, iTunes stores its
music library in your music folder by default.
It even includes your Desktop folder, where
many people store files.
It also includes other important folders, like
OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive, where
offline copies of your cloud files are stored if
you use these services.
There’s also
an AppData folder here, but you
won’t see it unless you’re showing hidden
files and folders. This is where programs store
the settings and data specific to your user
account. You may be able to use this data to
restore an individual program’s settings if you
ever need to recover from a backup.
With that in mind, we recommend you back
up your entire user account directory,
including the hidden AppData folder. This
ensures you have all your personal files and
settings, and you don’t have to spend much
time thinking about it. If multiple people use
the same PC and have their own files, back
up each user account’s folder.
You may choose to exclude certain folders
from the backup if you don’t want them
present. For example, if you store a bunch of
downloaded videos in the Videos folder and
you don’t mind redownloading them in the
future, exclude it from the backup. If you
have a many gigabytes of virtual machines
that take a large amount of space and you
wouldn’t mind setting them up from scratch
again, exclude the virtual machine folder. But,
if those virtual machines are important and it
would take you a good amount of time to
configure them again, you probably want to
back them up.
You’ll notice that we’re using a lot of words
like “by default”, “likely”, and “probably”
when saying where your files are stored.
That’s because Windows lets you store your
files in any location you like. If you moved
them, only you know where all your files are
stored.
For example, it’s easy to
move a folder like
Music, Videos, Downloads, Pictures, or
Documents
to another location on your PC. These files
may be stored on another drive, for example.
Or you may not use the default folders at all
and simply dump files in a folder elsewhere
on your PC’s hard drive. If you store your files
in non-standard locations like this, it’s crucial
you identify the folders containing your
important files and add them to the backup.
Your browser’s bookmarks and other settings
are located somewhere in the AppData
folder, so backing up your entire user folder
will save these files as well. However, you
may want to use your browser’s sync feature
and sync its settings with a Google, Firefox, or
Microsoft account. This will save you from
having to dig through your AppData folder.
If you use a desktop email client, you may
also want to back up your emails. This isn’t
necessary if you use the
modern IMAP
protocol for your email, as the master copies
of your emails are still stored on the remote
server. However, if you’ve downloaded
emails via the POP3 protocol, it’s crucial you
back up your emails as they may only be
stored on your PC.
The good news is that your emails are likely
stored in your user account’s AppData folder,
so they’ll be automatically backed up if you
back up your entire user folder. You may still
want to check the location of your email files
just to ensure they’re backed up, however.
Here’s how to find the location where
Outlook stores your emails
.
Any other personal data and settings that
aren’t located in your user account folder
should be backed up, if you care about it. For
example, you may want to back up
application settings that are located in
the C:
\ProgramData folder for some applications.
PC games in particular have files all over the
place. Many games synchronize their save
files online using Steam Cloud or a similar
service, so they won’t need backups. Many
store their save games in your Documents or
AppData folders, while others dump their
save games in C:\ProgramData or another
location, like somewhere in your Steam
folder.
The
PCGamingWiki website has a good
database of games with information about
whether they synchronize their save games
or not and exactly where their save files are
located on your PC.
Ensure whatever data you care about—
whether it’s your family photos, settings for a
mission-critical application, or save games for
that RPG you’ve been playing for 100 hours—
is backed up.
Files You Shouldn’t Back Up
There’s never a reason to back up your
Windows directory or Program Files folder.
Leave these folders alone.
The Windows directory contains Windows
system files, and they aren’t portable
between different PC hardware. Windows
will set up these files when it’s installed on a
new PC, so you don’t need them.
The Program Files folder contains files for
your installed applications. You usually can’t
just copy these folders over.
You’ll have to
reinstall most applications from scratch
, so there’s generally no point in backing up
this folder.
A handful of programs can be simply moved
between PCs. For example, you can back up
your
Steam or Battle.net directories and copy
them over to a new PC, saving the big
download of these games. However, even
these folders aren’t critical to back up. They
can make setting up a new PC faster and
save some of download time, but they aren’t
full of critical files you can never get back.
You can always just reinstall your programs,
so they aren’t the priority if you’re limited on
space.
Back Up Regularly
Once you’ve started backing up your files,
you should continue creating regular backups.
Back up your files daily, if possible. This will
be a fast process if you back up regularly, as
your backup tool will just back up the few
personal files that have changed.
Automating your backups helps ensure those
backups get performed regularly. That’s one
reason why online backup solutions are so
good. They can be configured to
automatically back up your PC every day
when you aren’t using your computer, so you
won’t even have to think about it.
SOURCE - HOWTOGEEK
