Full Backup

I have a 500gb External Hard Drive that only has Music loaded ATM but I think I should start making a full backup of (C), My PC has two 500gb Hard Drives and (C) on Drive 0 is 100gb anyway should I use Windows backup or a downloaded program ?, appreciate any advice - Thanks

Macrium Reflect is an excellent program, easy to use, and much faster than the Windows backup is.

It can be found at:

http://www.macrium.com/ReflectFree.asp

BTW, welcome to the forum, J.T!

Cat

I'm not that big on Windows Backup. I prefer to use a third party full backup solution.

Check out our Free Software Database. There is a few applications listed for Backup and Recovery.

Thank you Cat and Clifford I will look at each

My Hard Drives are Samsung so looks like I will have to use Macrium Reflect.

I still use Macrium some, it is an excellent program to be free of charge. My main backup program is Acronis True Image Home 2010, but I only have one license, and I use that on my desktop.

For my notebook though, I backup with Macrium regularly. I've had to recover with it, and did so with no problem. Don't forget to burn the rescue CD, you may need it one day. But I hope that you never need it.

Cat

Thanks for the advice Cat I will burn a rescue CD

One more vote for Macrium. I use (not so often actually) it, and it does a really great job. The only thing which annoys me about it is that in Windows Backup, you can explore the backup, and recover just the piece you need.

Though, Macrium is way better because it doesn't ZIP every folder one at a time. Windows does. It basicly makes a single file.

I also agree with the rescue DVD. I didn't make one, and nearly paid for my mistake. I have one now Another thing to do is to make a restore point once ina while. You'll be able to restore your system to an earlier time if anything goes bad. Though, Windows makes them automaticly.

I do make a Restore Point before I try any new Software, and I will burn a rescue CD

OK got my backup working so how often do I backup each week, month ? and do I delete the old backup ?