Backups.....

[Win2Win]

So easy, simple, quick & cheap to do these days, no reason why you shouldn't do them, and trust me, they can save you a lot of pain, time & money.

Simplest backup software is SECONDCOPY. Can be set to manual or auto (useful with another drive installed, you do bugger all)

Solutions:

1) You can get a Hard Drive for less than £40. Easy to install

2) Pen Drive - Depending on how much data, you can bung these in your pocket, and fit in the USB, cost from £15 for a 256kb

3) 5GB pocket hard drive, just got myself one of these, size of a yoyo, £70, well wort it. You can even boot XP from it, and it has password protection.

[vegyjones]

Backup, I don't need no stinkin' backup! :D

[John]

256kb... shouldn't that be megabytes? :D

The view I have generally about backups - everyone thinks they're invisible to it, that losing everything from a virus/hardware failure won't and can't happen to them, so they don't bother, and run the risk of losing everything (don't get me wrong, I fall into this category!)

[wb]

I don't know that much about it really, or what I should be doing. What files should I backup? do you mean stuff in my documents, or is it programs, or what?

If it is not obvious by now, I have never backed up before:yikes:

[Fadetoblack]

point taken.

[Win2Win]

point taken.
Wasn't getting at you old boy, I usually post a reminder about it every few months, and you reminded me.

You only really need to back up the followingl
My Documents
Music & Pictures yo may have in other directories.
Favourites
The SAVE directories from any games you are playing.
Favourites
Your Outlook+Settings & Address files
Any other folders you consider important
Any software you have download that may need installing again, hopefully that should all be in a Download folder!
Desktop

You only need to setup Secondcopy once, and with a 2nd hard drive it will backup on bootup automatically without any interaction, so you always have a copy.

With a pen drive, pocket HD, or external HD, you just plug it in the USB, and tell the software to COPY. You then do your work, while it backs up in the background.
You don't need to bother backing up

[Fadetoblack]

It is a very good point though...I'll have to invest in one of those pocket hard drives this time.