Today I will show you how to optimally backup all your personal files, folders and data in a way that is easily read and used in any operating system, not just Windows.
The Applications folder, at Macintosh HD/Applications, is also prime target for backup. The Mac App Store and downloadable software purchases have made it relatively easy to reinstall lost applications after a hard drive crash or data loss, but it’s still a time-consuming process even with a.
Apr 17, 2018 Disk Utility is a default tool that comes pre-installed on your Mac. To use it to clone your drive, follow these simple steps: Open Disk Utility on your Mac from Utilities or Applications. Click Erase at the top of the Disk Utility interface. Choose a media on left panel to mark your backup drive.
Mar 28, 2019 How to Back Up a Mac. This wikiHow teaches you how to back up the data and files on your Mac to an external hard drive and/or Apple's cloud-based storage service, iCloud. Connect your Mac to a formatted external hard drive.
Western Digital My Passport User Manual. Summary of Contents for Western Digital My Passport. The internal hard drive or hard drive partition that you want to back up files from or copy retrieved files to when your computer has more than one. The My Passport drive that you want to back up files to or retrieve files from when you. Feb 15, 2019 You can use Time Machine, the built-in backup feature of your Mac, to automatically back up all of your files, including apps, music, photos, email, documents, and system files. When you have a backup, you can restore files from your backup if the original files are ever deleted from your Mac, or the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac is erased or replaced.
As I have mentioned in earlier guides, Windows Backup & Restore is great if you are sticking with a Windows operating system, but messy and complicated if you want to use that backup in MAC or Linux (its inside a container file) and System Repair Discs are only good for your Windows system, not your personal data. It is far better to manually backup your personal data, preferably in addition to Windows built-in backup, rather than relying solely on the Windows backup format.
Before we begin, you will need either a USB flash drive or external USB hard drive (see example images below) with the capacity to hold all your personal data, which I will go through with you first, before commencing the backup process.
How to manually backup your personal data (Vista, 7 & 8)
1. Calculate how much space you require
Windows XP/Vista/7: Click on the Start Menu icon bottom-left of your screen, then click the Computer menu item
Windows 8/8.1: Press the Windows Logo key on your keyboard, click on the File Explorer icon on your taskbar, then click Computer from the left-pane
Click on your System (C:) drive or the drive where your Windows system is installed
Vista/7/8 user folders location: Computer > System (C:) > Users > [yourusername]
XP user folders location: Computer > System (C:) > Documents and Settings > [yourusername]
Right-click on your user folder (named the same as your logon name) and select the Properties menu item
Look for the Size on disk: XX.XXGB item where XX.XX will be the size of your personal files and data (ie. 15.56GB, MB=Megabyte, GB=Gigabyte, TB=Terabyte)
Repeat this process for all Users > [username] folders you want to backup
For USB flash drives, I recommend buying one-size-up from the size calculated, such as: if the size calculated is about 30GB you should buy a 64GB USB flash drive (not 32GB) as this will allow for headroom (you’ll need it).
If you have more than 128GB of personal data, I recommend buying an external USB hard drive instead of a USB flash drive (see below) as it is more affordable and faster.
For external USB hard drives, as a minimum I recommend buying a 500GB unit or larger, and USB3.0 rather than USB2.0. They come in sizes up to 4TB as of 2014.
Obviously you should purchase an external hard drive capable of holding all your personal data plus 100% headroom, in other words double the size of your personal data.
2. Locate important data files
Rather than explain how to find important data files located outside of your user folder (which would make this guide far too long), I will instead give you some links showing how to find the most common ones.
There may be more data files you need to back up, go through your programs and assess which ones do before proceeding, but most programs will (and should) store data files inside your Users > [username] folder.
3. Copy the data to external drive
Plug in your USB or external hard drive
Open your user folder: Computer > System (C:) > Users > [yourusername]*
You should now see all your user folders (Contacts, Desktop, Downloads, etc)
Starting at the top of the list, right-click on the first folder
Mouse-over the Send to: menu item
Click on the USB or external hard drive from the list, it will usually be named the same as its brand, WD_Elements (E:) or SanDisk (F:) etc
Windows will now copy the selected folder and it’s contents to your backup drive
Repeat this process for each folder but be aware, it can take some time (hours) to transfer large amounts of data (ie. My Documents or My Music) especially to USB flash drives
When finished transferring all your user folders, copy over any extra data files to your backup drive too (Outlook, Quicken etc)
Backup of all your personal data is complete*
*Please note that sometimes your user folders will be on a different partition or disk, particularly if you have a high-end workstation. Be sure you have at least copied the following folder list…
Contacts
Desktop
Downloads
Favorites
Links
My Documents or Documents
My Music or Music
My Pictures or Pictures
My Videos or Videos
Saved Games
Searches
Any other folders or files inside your user folders
There may be more files related to custom programs installed on your PC (Adobe Creative Suite, Corel etc) you will need to find these files and back them up also.
Cheers guys! and any questions leave them in the comments below.
Technical Level : Intermediate Summary
With every new revision of Windows comes the process of migrating to it. Many of you will be initiating a clean install instead of an in place upgrade. Before you do that though, you will need to ensure your data can move to the new version of Windows or that new device you will be buying. In this article, we take a look at backing up your files, specifically, we look at backing up manually. Recent versions of Windows include File History, which was introduced in Windows 8.0 in 2012 but based on my personal experience, it is not as thorough as Windows Easy Transfer which is no longer available or supported. A manual backup is also handy for migrating your personal files to a new PC or an important way to ensure your data is kept safe.
Details
What you need to start this project?
The first thing I recommend you do is invest in an external hard disk. I can't exhaust this enough; they are affordable and can store lots of data. You can probably get a 4TB drive for around $100.
USB External hard disk
Keep in mind, if you have a complex configuration, this article does not delve into the nuances of multiple partitions or drives with data scattered across them although the same rules can apply in regards to backup. If you do have folders for data such as documents, music, pictures and videos stored on other partitions or drives, then I would recommend you disconnect these data drives and upgrade only the system partition. You can always reattach your data drives after setup is complete.
Turn on Show Hidden Files & Folders
You want your backup to be as thorough as possible. Within your User folder is a hidden directory called AppData. This folder stores important settings for the apps you use, such as custom directionaries for Microsoft Word, passwords for apps like Chrome, Outlook data files and mail folders for apps like Windows Mail.
To turn on Hidden Files and folders, start by opening your user folder. Press Windows key + R then type: %userprofile% then hit Enter on your keyboard.
Enabling Show hidden files and Folders
Windows 8/8.1/10 - Click the View tab then click Options then click the View tab. Under Advanced settings > Hidden files and folders select the radio box Show hidden files and folders.
How can the answer be improved?
Windows Vista/7 - Click Organize > Search and Folder Options Windows XP - Click Tools > Folder Options
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AppData folder is now visible.
After completing the above steps, you should now see the AppData folder appear in your user folder.
Next step is to simply select all the folder. You can do this by pressing Ctrl + A or
Click Organize > Select All (Windows 7), Click Home tab > Select All (Windows 8/8.1/10), Edit > Select All (Windows XP).
Selected folders
Open your External hard disk then create a new folder and call it backup or a unique name. Open it then press Ctrl + V or
Click Organize > Paste (Windows 7), Click Home tab > Paste (Windows 8/8.1/10), Click Edit > Paste (Windows XP).
Depending on the amount of data, this can take a while.
If you have multiple accounts
If you have more than one account on your computer, log into each account and repeat the same steps. Make sure a unique folder is created for each account you backup manually.
Remember other folders you might have
If you store data in folders such as Public, remember to look in there too. The Public folder is located in C:UsersPublic
In Windows XP it is called Shared Documents located under C:Documents and Settings
NOTE: Some apps will keep their own data stores within their application folders, so make sure you browse and copy those over if necessary. Some users have a tendency to store files at the root of the hard disk, normally where the operating system is installed (Local Disk c:). Also check there for any important files and move them to Documents folder.
Restoration
Once your backup is complete and you have your new computer setup and Windows is installed and running, the next step is to copy over your files and folders from the external hard disk. You can do this two ways, you can individually copy the contents of each folder into the respective folder on the new computer from the external drive. Here is what you can easily do.
Connect and turn on your external hard disk.
Browse the backup folder with your backed up folders.
Press Ctrl + A or Click Organize > Select All (Windows 7), Home tab > Select All (Windows 8/8.1/10), Edit > Select All (Windows XP).
Open your User folder on the computer
Press Windows key + R then type: %userprofile% then hit Enter on your keyboard.
Press Ctrl + V or Click Organize > Paste (Windows 7), Home tab > Paste (Windows 8/8.1/10), Edit > Paste (Windows XP).
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You will be prompted if you want to replace the folders, click Yes.
Depending on the amount of data, this can take a while.
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If you have other accounts, make sure the respective accounts have been created and logged into then repeat the same steps.