Do I need to backup my computer? how and why?

DATA loss is a DISASTER for most of us if not all, being working on a project days and nights, creating and modifying Word files, PowerPoint slides, Excel sheets and maybe creating some Pdf files too, or even a normal user who keeps and collect pictures and memories and maybe important personal files, the last thing you want is to lose all your hard work, whether it is because a device theft or lost, damaged computer, hard disk storage, going to viruses and ransomware attacking your files and everything.

It is always a good idea to keep a copy or even more than one in more than one location, using different sort of technologies or products, if you have office365 account then use the OneDrive to backup and store your files, have an external USB hard disk, many vendor provide automatic backup solutions and encryption, have a home network storage to make sure if you lose a hard disk drive you never lose the data, have a storage or a product capable to sync your data to cloud provider, there are many ways to make sure you have always another copy of your important things.

anyway, for a normal windows OS users, here is the location where you need to make sure you backed up the files from, could be more than one location

User profile folders:

C:\Users\USERNAME\desktop

C:\Users\USERNAME\documents

C:\Users\USERNAME\download

C:\Users\USERNAME\pictures

C:\Users\USERNAME\videos

C:\Users\USERNAME\favorites

if you are using outlook archive pst files then you might want to look in this path C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

if you are using chrome browser, you might want to backup your bookmarked URLs

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\

it is a good also to check this whole path C:\Users\USERNAME\ if there is special folders created by you or apps you use

in some cases your computer might has more than just C: partition, if you have any other partitions like D: or H: , etc, you will need to backup these locations if it contains files you are aware about that is important for you.

in some cases as well, in C:\ you might find some folders or files got saved somehow and you have to make sure you have a backup if you found some data that looks important for you.

please note that your computer might has more than one username in this path C:\Users\ so it is also a good practice to check all users profile inside this path.

the above are the main locations to backup from time to time.

if you need assistance backing up your computer, please contact us, Apamea Tech always here to assist you