How to back up your PC properly?

Pure data can be copied and pasted to an external drive either manually or by the use of third party software which will also synchronise your data. I reccommend and use SynchbackSE both manually and on a schedule.

The Operating System cannot be backed up in this way as many of the files are in use. To backup the OS you need to image the drive using third party software such as Acronis Home - my choice. First image will be full, subsequent images incremental. A recovery CD allows you to boot the computer into Acronis and restore an image.

 

There is no reason why you should not, but you need to consider how often you intend to back up - there is no point in having the drive powered up 24/7 when you only use it once a week!

I suggest you setup a profile in SynchbackSE and initiate it manually on a weekly basis - or as required if you acquire a load of new data.

I would reccomend imaging the OS drive on a regular basis in case of a disaster - hard drives do fail, generally unexpectedly. The advantage of a current disk image is that it can be reloaded to the same or to a new drive if the need arises without the hassle of reloading all the software you currently have installed and without data loss.

It is important to maintain current backups and images - weekly should suit most users, but any new, vital or important data should be backed up immediately.

I maintain two backup copes of all data that is important to me - that may be OTT for some, but it suits me - I backup the backups