How to backup your files

I initially wrote this article to show people how to backup their own files in preparation for updating their computer to prevent a ransomware attack, but this information can still apply whenever you need to backup anything important.

So, to begin, we need to first locate our files. To do this we most open File Explorer. In all supported versions of Windows Operating System, holding the Windows key (usually located between the CTRL and ALT keys) and then pressing E should open up the Explorer window. If that doesn't work, you should typically have an icon on your taskbar, similar to this one on the right of the start button in the image shown below:

Or a similar icon should be located somewhere on your desktop. After opening File Explorer, you then need to locate what you want saved. Typically, the most important files will be found in the Users folder of your C: drive.

In the Users folder you'll find your own User account, as well as any others that are on the computer. If you are not sure what you want or need to backup, you can choose to backup the whole Users folder. Be warned, you want to make sure that you have a large enough storage drive to backup everything you have. To check on how much space your files are taking, I will show that down below, but for now, we will continue on with copying the files to your external drive. (Note: External drives is used here to mean any storage solution that you connect to the computer via USB. This can include Flash Drives, External Hard Drives, and various other methods of backing up data.)

Once you have found the files you wish to back up, the easiest way to copy them is to simply right-click on the folder containing these files, then clicking copy on the drop-down menu that appears. (Note: Only the things that are highlighted when you click copy will be copied. Nothing more and, more importantly, nothing less. All highlighted items will be copied by this command.)

Now that you have copied your desired files, it's time to move them to your external drive. Once you have your drive plugged in, you'll need to locate it in File Explorer. Typically you will find it on the left-hand side below the item labelled "This PC" or something similar. If you see nothing under "This PC," move your mouse over it, and you should see a white arrow/triangle pointing to the right. Click it, and it will list the main folders and drives on your computer. One of these should be your external drive. Mine is listed in the picture below as Movie Backups, assigned to drive letter G:.

Now, once you've located your external drive, click on it and it will show you what is currently on there. If this is a new drive, either there will be pre-loaded software from the vendor/manufacturer, or it will be entirely empty. Either is fine.

Now that you are in your drive, you can do one of two things. The first is to create a folder with a label to let you know when you made this backup. You do this by right clicking in the empty space, and then mouse-over "New," and then clicking "Folder" at the top of the menu. After that, it will immediately allow you to name the folder whatever you choose. Once you've chosen a name, press enter, and then you can open the folder to paste your files into.

The second option is to just paste directly onto your external drive. Either method is fine, though if you plan on doing regular backups in the future (which is highly recommended), having dated folders can be useful for knowing when your last good backup was. To paste your files onto your drive (or into the new folder on your drive), right-click in the empty space, and paste will be a clickable option in the menu (assuming you've followed all the instructions above and haven't been print-screening like I have).

Now, when you click paste, you may get a popup window that shows the estimated time of completion. If you are backing up a lot of files, this process can take a long time. Even longer if your hard drive is failing. Just be patient, and the process will eventually finish. Be forewarned, that you may encounter some errors when copying your files. Most of these (if you even have any) will be unnecessary files that the computer uses for indexing purposes, and do not need to be backed up. But occasionally it will tell you it can't back up a file, and it may be a picture, word document, or some other file you may consider important. If this happens, make note of it, then allow to the process to finish (usually be clicking ignore or skip). Then, find then file later, and see if you can retry backing it up. Sometimes it's just a small goof up in the backup process, but occasionally it can be seen as a sign of a corrupted file.

At this point, you should have your files backed up. If you have other things to backup, go back and repeat these steps with your remaining files until you have everything saved that you need. Below will be instructions on how to check the size of your files and folders, so you can determine if they will fit on your external drive.

To see how large the folders/files are, simply locate what you intend to backup (as detailed above), make sure it's highlighted by clicking on it only once, then right-click the folder/file. This will popup a menu with many different options. One of the bottom options will be "Properties." Click that, and a window will popup that should show the size of everything that's in the folder/file, as shown below.

Now, the difference between the two sizes are how big the actual files are, and how much space they take up on the drive. Think of it like a bookshelf containing books. Each book on the bookshelf may only take up a certain amount of space, and added together may be less space than how much the bookshelf can hold, but if there is no room for more books on the shelf, even if there is technically empty space open, you could effectively say that the books actually take up the whole space on the shelf. This is similarly applied to the files on your computer. The "Size on disk" is going to be the more important size, because this is roughly how much space it will take up on your external drive. And you may have noticed it earlier, but your external drive does not actually hold the exact amount of space that you may have thought you were buying. It holds a little bit less. This has to do mostly with unit conversion between different number bases (a bunch of math stuff), but it also is a little bit to do with rounding, so you lose roughly ten percent of the space you were advertised (eg 32 GB flashdrive only has about 29 GB of storage). With this information, you can now ensure you have enough space on your drive, or go purchase a drive large enough to hold all of your files.

To reiterate once more, it is highly recommended to make regular backups of your files, and I always recommend multiple backups. If you have data that absolutely cannot ever be lost, then have multiple backup drives with copies of that data, and make sure one of them is in a secured location (eg A fireproof safe, a safety deposit box at a bank, or buried in a cement casing). I am entirely serious about this, and I hope that you are now able to keep all of your important files safe.