How to Save Yourself Before Your Computer Crashes

Things You’ll Need:

• Computer
• External hard drive (at least 100GB, more is always better)
• Several recordable CDs or DVDs
• CD/DVD folder or other media storage
• CD/DVD-safe permanent marker or labels
• An online storage account (See Resources)

Step1

Pick a day of the week to perform your backup activities. Set aside about a half hour to backup your computer.

Step2

Identify the data you want to back up. This may include work documents, photos, music and the like.

Step3

Create a folder on your external storage device or hard drive and label it with the date and "Backup." For example "04152007Backup".

Step4

Copy all the important folders you identified in Step 2 over to this folder on your external hard drive.

Step5

Insert a recordable CD or DVD into your computer's disk drive.

Step6

Using your favorite disk burning program, burn the folders you identified in Step 2 to the CDs or DVDs using the "Create Data Disk" or similar feature of your program.

Step7

Label the CD or DVD with the date and "Backup" using a label or a CD/DVD-safe permanent marker and store in your CD/DVD folder or other media storage.

Step8

Sign up for your choice of online storage sites.

Step9

Back up all the folders you identified in Step 2 to your online storage site.

Step10

Do this weekly.