How to Back Up the Primary Hard Drive
The primary hard drive of your computer contains all the installation files, documents, music, videos and other files on the system. The first rule of securing your files is to back them up somewhere apart from the primary hard drive. It is not secure to make back up copies of your files on the same hard drive. Instead, use an external hard drive or a set of DVDs.
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Instructions
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Back up by Copying
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Set up the backup process. Windows users should head to the "Backup and Restore" utility. This can be found under "System and Maintenance" in the Control Panel. Click "Set up backup" and let the wizard lead you through the settings. When prompted for the administrator password, provide it.
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Connect an external hard drive to your computer. While DVDs can be used to back up your primary drive, the amount of data to be transferred will necessitate using multiple DVDs. External hard drives are a simpler alternative. You don't need a separate process for the backup. DVDs will require writing the data to disk.
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Back up your primary hard drive. From the "Set up backup" windows, you will specify where to back up your files and the extent of backup you want for your primary hard drive (i.e. everything or some partitions). You can schedule subsequent backup sessions from there as well.
Ghosting Software
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Install a "Ghosting" software such as Norton Ghost. This is a hardware imaging software. It works by taking snapshots of your hard drive and replicating it as a backup somewhere else. The advantage of ghosting over copying is that you can transfer your settings and updates along with your files. Should you need to restore the computer, you can bring it back with not only the files but also your software updates and program settings.
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Set up the imaging of the primary drive. After launching Norton Ghost or a similar alternative, choose the "Back Up Drive" option under the "Tools" tab. Specify which partition of your primary hard drive you want to ghost. This always includes the "C:" drive since it's where the operating system and other programs are installed. You can include other partitions, however. After that, choose the destination drive to save the Ghost image. This can be another partition on the hard drive, but preferably it will be an external hard drive.
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Connect an external hard drive. If you are making a Ghost image outside your hard drive, you will need an external hard drive to store the image.
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"Ghost" the drive. Start creating a Ghost image of the primary hard drive after selecting the type of data compression you want. Note that high compression ratios will make the image creation take longer.
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