Finding What Needs To Be Backed Up On Your Small Office Pc

In the first article, we made a good case to back up your PC's important data

, and hopefully you "got the message." Now it's time to learn where that data is stored on the computer. Actually, it's pretty easy to find all that "stuff," since Windows has created a built-in set of standard folders for the job. Let's talk about the concept of the "default" folder. When the computer does something automatically without asking for your imput, that's doing something "by default." Basically, it's a built-in action. When it comes to storing things like documents and pictures, Windows uses a set of built-in folders for each type of file. Generally, it does a good job of knowing "what goes where."

Where does Windows keep all these folders? All these important folders - and several others - are stored under a main folder called the "User Account" folder. Every "user" (that's us humans) has their own account on a PC, when it's set up correctly, that is. When the PC is first "booted up," it displays all the different user accounts, and you can select which one to open and use. At this point, you click on your user name to go to your account. In this manner, you see only your documents, music, picutres and other data. User accounts allow multiple "users" (people) to have their own information stored - separately and securely - on a single computer.

Now let's zero in on the important folders you'll need to back up. Click that Windows Start button. You'll see the Windows menu is divided into two colums, left and right. At the top of the right-hand column is either your user name or that "generic" name. You may notice that name "badge" is a button. Click on it to open the "user folder." This is where you'll see all the personal subfolders for Documents, Music, Pictures and more. On some PC's, the Documents folder may also be named "My Documents," but it's exactly the same.

Now the question is, how much "space" will you need to back up all your "stuff?" Of course were not talking about physical space, like in your closet, or garage. I'm talking about computer disk-space, almost always expressed in megabytes... that's the space or "size" used by the folders and files. For a rough estimate (and that's good enough) of the space you'll need, go back to the main user folder, so you can see subfolders for Documents, etc. Point your mouse, but don't click, on the documents folder. Now, give the folder a single RIGHT mouse click (be sure it's right, not left). When the next menu pops up, you'll see a list of commands. At the bottom, you should see "Properties." Give that item a single left-mouse click. That opens another box... one that will count up the number of subfolders and individual files inside the top-level folder. It will also display the total amount of storage space all those items are using on the PC. The one number to focus on is "Size." That's the total number - in megabytes or gigabytes - needed to store all that data on the computer hard drive... and how big a storage device you'll need to back it up.

Of course the Documents (or My Documents) folder is the most important one to back up, but you may also want to include other folders with important data. Now, you can repeat those steps by right-clicking on all the other data folders, to add up the total amount of storage you'll need to back up everything. Of course now it's time to start thinking about hardware for the job... to save all this important information. If the size is small - less than 16 gigabytes of total data, it could be easily and simply stores on a USB flash or "thumb" drive (two names for the same device.). If the number is larger, you'll probably want to go with an external hard drive, which can store hundreds of gigabytes of data.

Copyright (c) 2010 Bill Sklodowski

by: Bill Sklodowski

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