- Working with Files, Folders, and Disks
- Viewing Files and Folders
- Navigating Folders
- Working with Libraries
- Searching for Files
- Creating New Folders
- Renaming Files and Folders
- Copying Files
- Moving Files
- Deleting Files
- Working with Compressed Folders
- Copying Files to Another Computer
- Backing Up Your Important Files
Backing Up Your Important Files
Then there’s the issue of protecting your files. What do you do if your computer crashes or your hard disk dies? Are all your important files and documents totally lost?
Not if you’re prescient enough to back up your key files on a regular basis. The easiest way to do this is by connecting an external hard disk drive to your computer. Get a big enough external disk (about the same size as your main hard disk), and you can copy your entire hard disk to the external drive. Then, if your system ever crashes, you can restore your backed-up files from the external drive to your computer’s system unit.
External hard drives can be purchased for around $100 and are easy to connect via either USB or FireWire. You can use the proprietary backup software that comes with most external drives, or use the Windows Backup utility. Whichever program you use, you should back up your data at least weekly—if not daily. That way you won’t lose much fresh data if the worst happens.