Automatic Backups: Tips and How-To

Lets face it, disasters happen all the time in the computing industry in relations to data loss - do not become a statistic, for, there are ways to do an Automatic Backup to a device such as an External Hard Drive; USB Flash Drive; CD; and other types of removable media. Backing up your data is not something that is on every consumers mind in computing, but, in case a virus strikes your PC's Hard Drive or anything else happens for that matter, you should have a backup plan...literally.

Below, are the steps on how to create Automatic Backups in Windows Vista

1. Open up the Control Panel from the Start Menu 


2. When inside the Control Panel, click System and Maintenance and then click Backup and Restore Center


3. Once in the menu, click where it says Backup Files and them follow the prompts in the wizard. (PLEASE NOTE: If you are prompted for an Administrator password (this will happen if you have the User Account Control Activated) please enter the password and continue)


4. Now that you have created backups, you need to change the settings by going to the System and Maintence and then Backup and Restore Center in the Control Panel and click where it says Change Settings


5. Then, click Change Backup Settings and then follow the prompts in the wizzard (PLEASE NOTE: If you are prompted for an Administrator password (this will happen if you have the User Account Control Activated) please enter the password and continue)


You will need to have an External Device at ready in order for you to activate Automatic Backups, or, you can use a secondary Hard Disk Drive in your PC is you have one available. I use the settings to backup my PC every Sunday at 6:00 AM, however, these settings are not default and can be edited.