how do i backup files from computer

[la321]

I use windows 7 home and would like to know how could i backup my files and would it save my work i have saved in Microsoft word as well? is the backup program in windows 7 good enough to use and how to backup without using a disc to back system up? I want to backup my computer if anything goes wrong so i won't lose anything and if i decide to upgrade my operating system and lose something in the upgrade. I always have my system updates on my computers chosen to "check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them" I received a windows 10 popup today asking me to install and i clicked decline offer and said i wouldn't receive notification about upgrading anymore. i'm not sure if that is true though. i don't want it to install without my consent or after restarting my computer based on what i have read and i lose my files.

 

[smorizio]

there are a few backup programs out there. what you want to do is pick up on sale a ext hard drive. the cheap backup are called disk clone. make a one for one copy of the disk. if the disk your backing up has issue you back up the bad files too. the better ones make a system image and then only move new or changed files to the back up system image. so it saves the user time so they dont have to keep there pc on for a few hours to run a weekly backup.
a good backup workout is having more then one media for the back up. for your word and music and games pick up a few cheap usb sticks. copy that data to the usb stick put one stick in a small fireproof safe or in bank safty deposit box. if there always needed like family photos. use the cloud like ms or google cloud storage to put the files there too or use cloud storage to put the whole drive image on it. hard drive and ext drive can fail at any time. having the back up online or on dvd set of disk will help on a crash or fire.

 

[la321]

I have a external hard drive when i bought it the space said 1tb but it says 83gb of 931gb. i can delete everything in it to make room but is 931gb enough to back up files on a system? the local disk says 763gb of 921gb.

 

[wpgwpg]

931 GB should be way more than enough to back your system up. However you haven't said how much is USED on your C: drive. As a rule of thumb I figure the backup for the whole system will be roughly 3/4 of the used space. So if you have 100 GB used, you'd need 75 GB on the backup drive.
Two good free programs I will recommend are Macrium Reflect and Easeus Todo Backup Free.

Good luck.

 

[la321]

C: drive has 115gb used space

 

[wpgwpg]

Then you shouldn't need but about 86 GB of space out of that 921. That means you have space for up to 10 backups on that external hard drive!

Good luck.

 

[la321]

How do i do the backup do i use the windows 7 backup program and connect my external hard drive to laptop?

 

[wpgwpg]

Don't use the Windows backup! Download the free Macrium Reflect or Easeus Todo Backup Free and use one of these to backup to the external hard drive. Yes you plug the external hard into a USB port on the laptop. USB3 ports are a good bit faster than USB2 ones, but either will work.

 

[la321]

Would i be able to use my computer while it's in the process of backing up and i think i have usb2 port. how long usually does it take

 

[wpgwpg]

You could use it while it's backing up, but I try not to because using it means you could be adding or removing things that could possibly cause problems if you need to restore. To back up 115 GB to a USB2 drive I'd guess would take about an hour. Just start the backup before you sit down for dinner, and it'll be close to finishing when you finish eating.

Good luck.

 

[soyakosan]

well, you can please try windows own via the support center, here is the link and it does work. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17127/windows-back-up-restore. But if you would like to do system backup, you'd better to try some free third software.