As you should imagine, when you format your computer, you will lose all your files if you don't make a backup first, so this short tutorial will help you to save all your information. It is also ideal that you always install an antivirus on your PC, to avoid formatting it frequently.
Determine priorities before making a backup
Most of us have too many personal files like photos, music, videos, documents, programs, etc. And one of the main reasons for our team's poor performance is information overload.
Therefore, it is important to determine which files we really need and which we don't. This way we will have much more storage space on our hard drive and, when formatting, we will have a much lighter computer.
If you have already decided which files you will keep, the next thing you should be clear about is which backup methods you will use. Here we show you some of them.
Use an external storage drive to back up
It is one of the most popular and secure options, as it allows you to store a large amount of information. One of the most used are external hard drives, ranging from 100Gb to 500Gb, you can even get some with 1Tb of storage. If you are not aware of what storage devices are and what they are for, find out before reading further.
Do not make the mistake of using an SD Card or a Pendrive, as in addition to having little space, they tend to get lost or even damaged easily, and with them all the information you have saved. So, if you already have your external hard drive ready, what you need to do is the following:
⦁ Once you have the backup folder with all the files you want to save, select it by right-clicking.
⦁ Then, a window will pop up where an option will appear saying "Send".
⦁ Next, you will see several destinations appear. There you will select your external drive.
⦁ Finally, you just have to wait for all the files to be transferred. The time depends on the number of files and the performance of your PC.
Create a backup for your backup
Currently, the operating system of Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 has this fantastic option to protect our personal files, so that when we format our PC we do not suffer losses. We also recommend that when formatting your PC, you install Windows 10 from scratch to get the most up-to-date system.
Thanks to this tool, you can save a fairly large image of your computer and export it to a CD / DVD or external disk. To make a backup copy on your computer you need to do the following:
⦁ Let's enter the Control Panel
⦁ Once inside we select the first option that says " System and security «
- There we will click on Backup and restore
⦁ Inside, select the option » Set up backup copies «
- Once this is done, we select our external storage drive. We can allow Windows to automatically select all files or select them manually.
Use cloud storage
Currently there are several storage platforms cloud, which give you a large storage capacity, so you don't have to worry about the number of files you have or need to back up.
One of them is Google Drive, albeit there are many others. All you have to do is log into their website and follow the steps shown there, or you can also access Google Drive as a disk partition on your PC, without using Google Chrome.
Use specialized programs
Today there are several programs that allow us to protect our personal files to avoid losses. One of them is EaseUS Todo Backup Free, which allows us to choose between different types of backups
One last recommendation is that, before formatting your PC, you have assigned one partition for the system and another one especially for your personal files. This way, when you install the operating system you can do it in the system reserved partition and therefore your personal documents will not be affected .
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