How to Backup a Hard Drive for Free
Backing up your hard drive is an important safety precaution. It ensures your important data is available and secure in case your computer crashes. There are many costly backup options, such as purchasing external hard drives and flash drives, or buying storage space online. Fortunately, you can easily back up your hard drive for free using Windows Backup on your PC or Time Machine on your Mac.
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Instructions
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Backing Up a PC
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Click "Start" in Windows XP and Vista, and click the Windows logo button in Windows 7. Select "Control Panel" from the Start menu.
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Click on "Back up your computer" under the "System and Security" section in Windows 7. In Windows Vista, click on "Backup and Restore Center" under "System and Maintenance" and "Backup" under "System Tools" in Windows XP. This will take you to the "Backup and Restore" page.
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Click "Set up backup" under "Backup." Windows Backup will open.
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Select the media or device on which you want to save your hard drive backup, then click "Next."
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Click "Let Windows choose" if you are unsure which files to back up. Select "Let me choose" if you wish to back up specific files. Click "Next."
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Choose the files you wish to back up if you clicked "Let me choose." Click "Next" when you're finished; a review screen will appear.
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Click "Change schedule" under "Schedule" to decide how often you want Windows Backup to run. The more often Windows backs up your files, the less you'll lose if your computer crashes.
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Click "Save settings and run backup." Your computer will back up your hard drive to the location you chose, following the schedule you set.
Backing Up a Mac
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Click the Apple menu on the top left corner of your screen. A menu will appear. Click "System Preferences."
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Click "View," then select "Time Machine." A box will appear asking if you want to use Time Machine as your backup method. Click "Use as Backup Disk." A new box with the Time Machine logo will appear.
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Click "Options," then choose which files you do not want to back up (if any). Click "Done." Time Machine will then back up your system.
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Tips & Warnings
You can also back up your hard drive for free by downloading a hard drive cloning program. These programs save an image file of your hard drive to another location (such as a DVD or external drive). This file contains a "snapshot" of the contents of your drive.
