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Back-up C drive?

12 years ago

I've had this pc since 2006 and there is important 'stuff' on it so I'm thinking I should make a copy. I'm confused about what I should copy tho. The whole C drive or just individual files? C drive contains 24GB. I'd like to use a thumb-drive, but unsure of exactly what I should copy. Suggestions appreciated, thanks.

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Comments (4)

kudzu9
12 years ago
A portion of that space is taken up by programs and the operating system. Presumably you have discs or can download these programs again if you need to. To me the important "stuff" is what I can't replace, like photos or videos or documents I've created that only exist in one storage place. You should be easily able to transfer those to one or more thumb drives, an external drive, or burn them to CDs/DVDs.

If you have an external drive you can also just back up the whole C: drive. That would not only save your unique, precious "stuff," but would allow you to create an identical drive to replace your existing drive when (not if) it fails.
davestexas
Original Author
12 years ago
This is an XP computer and sooner or later support is going away and the next pc will be 'the latest/greatest' OS from MS. So that being said: I like the idea of using an external HD to copy existing C, but that prolly isn't needed? Just copy to thumb drive files like documents, program files, misc folders with photos etc.? I could not use the copy of C and install it, or what I wanted of it, onto the new OS...right? Thanks, I appreciate the help.
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ravencajun Zone 8b TX
12 years ago
no you could not use the OS part of your old one when putting it on the latest OS version only on the same OS, if you felt that your pc may soon crash or something and you would want to just put it back exactly as it is then you could use a program that would basically clone that drive including the Operating system and all, a snapshot in time of exactly how it is when you do the image save. There are some good free programs for doing that and it is pretty easy to do.

If you choose to just save your data that can be done too, just drag and drop the folders you want to save onto a flash drive or DVD's or an external drive.
Usually that would be any documents, pictures, music, videos, bookmarks and profiles, possibly email, etc that you would want to transfer to your new pc or just keep stored and safe.

this article has a lot of info on various types of backup
What Files Should You Backup On Your Windows PC?

Top 10 Files to Backup

one of the free imaging programs
Macrium Reflect FREE Edition
threas
12 years ago
I backed up my files on Macrium Reflect free edition a couple of years ago. I cannot open the files on the backup disk. I just did a system recovery from the computer files, so I don't want to put unnecessary stuff on my computer to read the extensions. What would be recommended?

Thanks, Theresa

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