Comments for How do I backup my computer?

Comment from Connie on 2011-12-22

2011-12-22T22:26:55Z

@James
Seems like it would take a lot of CD's to back up the whole computer. A flash drive, or external drive would save you a lot of grief.

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Comment from james leslie on 2011-12-22

2011-12-22T20:15:50Z

Can I use the cd player on my Gateway 8510 laptop to image backup my system. In addition to protecting against loss I'm considering wiping the harddrive clean and begining over. My system seems to be slowing down but Security Essentials and Malwarebytes don't find infections.

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Comment from peterlonz on 2011-12-08

2011-12-09T03:43:35Z

It' about time that the writers of PC articles are addressing users with many Tb of stored data.
With Music video & movies, my system which is probably towards the low end of high level data storage, uses about 3.5Tb.
Do I need to back up everything - probably not, but if I do a half pie decent job, I will need either a removable HD or external HD with say 5 Tb of storage.
This is no small investment & frankly I don't recall seeing anything of this size for sale.
Then there is the issue of copy time, can it be done overnight, if not how many hours in the day do I sacrifice?
Lets get to the heart of this matter - people do not back up because its APITA.

That may be... and I honestly wish backup programs were easier for the average consumer ... but like it or not the choice not to back up means you could lose everything in an instant and without warning. If you're OK with that, then don't backup. On the other hand, that kind of data loss (terrabytes of data loss?) would be a bigger PITA to me than figuring out how to get it safely backed up.

09-Dec-2011

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Comment from Robin Clay on 2011-11-08

2011-11-08T16:51:18Z

I understand that CDs and DVDs (particularly cheap ones) may have a life of only five years or less. "Archive quality" I gather will last longer - but probably not for ever.

I backed up some files to floppy (well, 3.5" "stiffy") disks. Ten years later (when I needed them) they were unreadable.

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Comment from Cindy on 2011-11-05

2011-11-05T14:01:20Z

Pls answer posted question above by Rahul, Sep 15, under incremental bu info and above Lyn's post. An oversight?

New article for that: How do I safely backup an infected drive?

06-Nov-2011

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Comment from jasmin on 2011-06-10

2011-06-10T12:16:01Z

Thanks so much! You really helped me :) Now can I just get a flashdrive & back my files into that? Please respend. Thank you. :)

Using flash drives is one form of backup, but realize that it doesn't backup everything, flash drives are easily lost, and flash memory does wear out.

10-Jun-2011

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Comment from Robin Beeson on 2011-06-09

2011-06-10T04:46:43Z

To back up you suggest I get a USB hard disc -ok. But what then? How do I download everything from my computer? If hard drive dies
I assume I purchase another to replace it and then introduce the stored data to it - if so how do I do that please?

That's what backup software is for. You run it regularly to backup yoru data to the external disk, and when time comes to restore it you use it again. This series has an example of the backup process step by step using an older version of Acronis: How to Backup.

10-Jun-2011

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Comment from Aunt Nina on 2011-06-07

2011-06-08T01:21:09Z

Good article. It is in language I can actually understand and answered all of my questions about backing up and using a usb. I am having printing problems and am going to have to have my computer worked on and this will save me worry about them losing my info.

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Comment from Lyn on 2011-05-27

2011-05-28T05:05:25Z

Hi Toni,
Yeh, my Win 7 backup to Ext HD was showing (Empty) in some things. Yet there was all the GB's used. I kept on clicking on things and it ... like ... installed, or something. And then it was suddenly there! I don't know why Win 7 doesn't have sensible instructions.
Lyn

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Comment from rahul on 2010-09-15

2010-09-15T16:14:08Z

hi,
my harddisk got infected with virus....i am planning to format it ...so is ther a way to backup all the data without carrying the virus

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Comment from Tony on 2010-07-24

2010-07-24T12:12:17Z

I've owned a computer for nearly two years but only just bought an external hard drive two days ago. I recently changed to Windows 7 and there's a prompt that constantly reminds users that "your files are not being backed up". I successfully ran a back-up but my question is - What should I expect to see when I look at that drive? The back-up size was 83.26 GB but why can't I actually "see" all this information on the drive!

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Comment from John Nicholls on 2010-07-24

2010-07-24T08:43:11Z

Great articles on backing up - but nothing about restoring! One necessitates the other.
I imaged my hard disk onto an external HD but I'm at a loss as to how to restore if I have to. That's because you need a floppy disk(!) for the purpose. My laptop has no FDD. I read some advice about creating a bootable CD but it lost me. So now I have my backup and the hope I will not need it!!

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Comment from Eric Schilling on 2010-07-06

2010-07-06T17:29:50Z

Good article! While I am intrigued by the strategy of backing up to multiple places on the home office network, I can only wish I had that many computers. Sadly, I only have two - a fairly ancient laptop (1999) and a reasonably recent desktop.

I'm thinking about buying 2 usb drives and rotating them nightly. I also want to be backing up every day. Drive A is plugged in before I go to bed and drive B is unplugged and put in the fire safe. The next night I swap back and so on. If I do a full image with drive A attached, then the next day's incremental (or differential) would be on drive B. This means I'd potentially need *BOTH* backup drives in order to do a restore, which is bad if one of your backup devices fails too. (Like you have a fire and the system and backup drive attached are toasted.) So what is a good strategy using two USB drives and rotating them? Is there a better strategy for more drives? They are getting awfully cheap. Thanks!

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Comment from JohnnyBoyClub on 2010-06-11

2010-06-11T11:24:37Z

I personally use http://www.dmailer.com/dmailer-backup.html to backup my HDD.

Why i am using it ?
Because is easy to use and has a friendly user interface , and is also free .
Another great reason why i am using it is that it has a feature where you can store up to 3gb any backups your have for free members ( you can buy higher webspace )

On as cale of 1-10 i will give Dmailer around 9

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Comment from ThadaB on 2010-05-11

2010-05-11T21:04:45Z

I downloaded a free trial of Acronis TrueImage and ran it. It stopped saying no space so I deleted files on external drive. When it finished, it had made 3 files! They are named @date@, @date@2, and @date@3 instead of giving me the choice of a name with date, which I requested. I clicked on them since you say they are searchable. They are NOT! They cannot be opened. what gives?

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Comment from DuLe on 2010-04-30

2010-04-30T21:06:15Z

Well, I guess I'm not too smart.... When I recently purchased a new PC I also bought an external HD. For the first time in 10 years I was, by gosh, going to back-up my stuff!

But now I'm frustrated with/by my external HD (Seagate - 250 GB).

After running a back-up *one time* the HD says it's full -- 196 GB of 232 GB used. And I can�t figure out why. Every time a scheduled backup tries to run I get a �backup HD is full� message.

I did, rightly or wrongly, find the Windows �Easy Transfer� program and installed it. On this 250 GB HD the files and folders I find are:

- Windows Easy Transfer (a file) -- 11 GB
- My Backups (a folder I created on my old PC and transferred) -- 11 GB. (This folder *may* contain the same information the Windows Easy Transfer file contains. I don�t know.)
- Folder titled �Seagate.� -- 457 MB
- Folder titled �Win Easy Transfer.� -- 72 MB
- Folder titled �WindowsImageBackup.� -- 18.4 GB
- A couple of other files and/or folders which contain either no data or a very small amount.

So, I fail to see how about 40 GB of �stuff� has filled up my 250 GB external HD.

I have reset my backup preferences to NOT include stuff like pictures, music and videos (which take up the vast majority of my HD space).

Am I dense, missing something, or what?

As always, I continue to enjoy Leo�s emails and his readers comments and help.

I'd run the tool mentioned in this article - Where's my disk space going? - to find out what's taking up all that space.

01-May-2010

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Comment from Jessica clementson on 2010-01-21

2010-01-22T07:05:10Z

Is it better to back up(system image) your computer using cd's or a flash drive? I heard that flash drives don't work well with long term/archiving information. Which is better?

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Comment from Mike on 2010-01-21

2010-01-21T18:30:48Z

I use a program called Nova Backup Professional. I'm not very technical, but I found it pretty easy to use. I run a small online business so I have it back up my business data automatically every night. The cool thing about Nova Backup is that it makes it really easy to back stuff up online. They have a list of storage companies and for like 10 bucks a month you can subscribe to one then just check it as one of the devices you want to back up to and it will back up your files locally and off site in case the local device gets destroyed.

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Comment from Jim Vetor on 2009-12-08

2009-12-08T21:32:17Z

I do not trust USB external drives, home made one or boughten ones. I have had data corrupt on more then one of them for no apparent reason. I recently crashed my hard drive being stupid. I thought I had it backed up on my External. When I hooked it up the data wasn't seen. I used some software online and thank God the data was seen and I was able to copy it to my hard drive. I bought two 500 gig drives, mounted one in the computer and the other as USB. I now keep an updated copy on each drive using the free second back up program. Barring a fire I should be safe unless both drives go south at the same time with my hard drive. The only media I really trust is burning a CD-R but the loss between burns could be extreme and it is time consuming. I now only burn back up data I no longer need but want to keep. Enjoy your work. Thanks.

Jim

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Comment from Anthony on 2009-11-24

2009-11-25T03:02:18Z

At the moment I have most of my files copied on both my work and home computer, as well as a Flash Drive. Originally that was for easy access at any time but how does that measure up in relation to your idea of backing up?

It's not so much how it measures up to me, but to you. Take anyone one of those three. Now imagine that it disappeared completely. As far as your data is concerned, is that a disaster, a pain, or simply an annoyance? If it's a disaster, then you're not backing up enough. If it's a pain, then a more complete backup strategy may help ease that pain should it ever occur. If it's just an annoyance, then you're probably just fine.

26-Nov-2009

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Comment from netta on 2009-11-23

2009-11-24T02:07:04Z

OK, I want to back up my computer on Discs. Which discs do I buy, (there are several to chose from), how many, (range)?. thanks *n

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Comment from Teri on 2009-11-22

2009-11-22T16:24:22Z

Question. If I get an external hard-drive, run a back-up using Acronis (or whatever)...can I restore my system on a different computer? Specifically, my son is moving in with me, and he has this monster of a gaming computer...and my 4 year old laptop is about running slower and slower all the time - so, what I want to do, is backup my laptop (with all the data AND PROGRAMS I have) and just plug it in to his pc and run my programs independently of what he already has loaded on the system. Does that make sense? Is it possible?

No. The problem is that the applications are installed in your laptops copy of Windows, and that copy of Windows is configured for the hardware in your laptop. Restoring it to another computer - particularly one that is vastly different than the original - won't work. What will work is restoring it to a drive and accessing files from it, but restoring and expecting the restored OS and applications to "just work" isn't in the cards.

22-Nov-2009

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Comment from patrick on 2009-11-13

2009-11-14T02:08:05Z

Leo,
im on vista and i went into control pannel and then into backup and restore center and then into backup computer and i selected my external hard-drive but it says underneath the drop down box (the one where you choose what drive to backup to)next a yellow triangle with an explanation mark "this disk cannot be used to store a windows complete pc backup image because because it is not formatted with NTFS"

I don't see a question in there but it sounds like the drive is probably formatted with FAT32. See this article How do I convert to NTFS?

14-Nov-2009

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Comment from Moshe Natan Lando on 2009-10-15

2009-10-15T15:11:12Z

When I try to back up to my external hard drive to a disk or disks I get a message {"You have too much information for one disk"}.
Fine, I'll use as much disks as it takes, but HOW?

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Comment from Tom Smith on 2009-10-10

2009-10-11T04:32:16Z

I like carbonite online backup service - carboniteremote.info

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Comment from DEBBIE on 2009-06-12

2009-06-12T16:37:08Z

i THINK HE WANTED THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION. ONCE I PLUG IN MY EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ETC THEN HOW DO I GET THE FILES TO SAVE TO IT. EASY QUESTION BUT WAS NOT ANSWERED

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Comment from Dennis Conard on 2009-06-09

2009-06-10T03:24:05Z

I have Acronis True Image 11 Home.
I've been LQQKing at your postings on the subject of backing up.
Could you please post by the numbers, the steps to back up a C: drive with Acronis True Image.

Your doing what I want to do in Backing-up, I just want to go forward now.

Thanks,
Dennis in Sacramento

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Comment from Steve Burgess on 2008-11-13

2008-11-13T17:57:00Z

Leo, I TOTALLY agree with what you say about keeping the backup as far away as possible from the original.
A local school library burned down - all of the contents were lost. The laptop on the librarian's desk looked like a cinder coughed up by a volcano. The laptop held an inventory of the library's contents - all of the info needed for the insurance company to pay out. The backup was on a CD in the desk drawer under the laptop. It turned into a little puddle of plastic. Fortunately, we were able to recover the data. If you're curious, there's a picture of the laptop here: http://www.datarecoveryworldwide.com/ (I don't think I can paste a picture in here). Incidentally, one of the things that kept the HD from being too far gone was that the laptop was sitting on a cheap plastic and cardboard three-ring binder - it provided just enough insulation so that the guts of the HD weren't totally fried (just well-done). Now the school district keeps backups in another room - AND keeps cheap three-ring binders under laptops!

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Comment from Bonita on 2008-11-02

2008-11-03T03:16:28Z

Leo,
I invested in a large capacity USB external hard drive for the specific purpose of making an image backup. When I went to choose the image backup program, the salesman advised me to make the backup on DVDs instead, "since the DVDs would be bootable and the hard drive wouldn't." I feel frustrated by my lack of knowledge and would appreciate knowing what extra steps would be involved in making a functional image backup on the external HD instead of DVDs.
Thank you.

There are many different approaches, and while the salesman is incorrect in some regards, he is correct in one: in a worst case scenario you need something to boot from.

My approach (using Acronis) is to create an Acronis Rescue/Boot CD once and then backup my data to the external USB hard disk. Then in the worst case scenario I can boot from that CD, which then has the Acronis tools to recover my data from the external hard drive.

- Leo
03-Nov-2008

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Comment from JOYOUS on 2008-10-31

2008-11-01T02:19:09Z

HOLY COW!
ALL I WANT TO DO IS SAVE MY E-MAIL FOLDERS TO A CD!
HOW COMPLICATED IS THAT...........
I HEARD YOU CAN BACK UP THE FOLDERS AND FREE UP SPACE SO YOUR COMPUTER CAN BE FASTER.
AS YOU CAN SEE...I AM A NOTICE....AND DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DO IT......TOOTLES

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Comment from WordsMyth on 2008-10-28

2008-10-28T23:23:31Z

Is it better to "clone" a (bootable) backup copy of my hard drive to my new external HD, or to just do "backup image," which allows compression but is NOT bootable?

Bit of background/context: I recently got an Apricorn 500 GB external HD (USB and/or eSATA), which comes with Apricorn's "EZ Gig II" backup program. Apricorn has gotten very good reviews across a broad spectrum of sources and EZ Gig II can run from "one-button" simple back-ups to fairly elaborate "customized" clone/backup images for the more experienced.

I had pretty much decided to:
� Do an initial full/total system & data "clone image" bootable backup.
� Do periodic (i.e., monthly) partial/updated data backup images.
� Do replacement full/total system & data "clone image" bootable backups annually thereafter.

However ... in the EZ Gig II program, the "Clone Disk" full system/data backup process warns: 'Typical mode is used for hard disk cloning. This mode pre-selects the most common settings to make the cloning process easier. All your partitions from the old hard disk will be copied to the new one in a few simple steps, making your new hard disk bootable. All of your partitions will be automatically resized to fit the new hard disk.
Note: You will have to remove the old hard disk when the cloning process is complete.
Suitable for most users.'

This sounds like if I clone my HD to my external HD I have to remove the original HD? That just doesn't make any sense.

What do you think? Obvious option is to do the original/annual "clone disk" full system/data (bootable) backup to the external HD and then just ignore the instruction to remove the "remove the old hard disk." And then proceed with the monthly incremental backups.

Does that sound reasonable/rational/doable?

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Comment from Frank Walker on 2008-10-28

2008-10-28T19:25:13Z

Raid for Backup? If your data becomes corrupted and unusable it does so on both drives at the same time. Then what?
Acronis True Image has worked well for me to restore data to the same hard drive in the same computer after the data has become corrupted.
I keep a backup on my secondary hard drive and a backup on an external hard drive off site.
I also back up important files to a USB flash drive (and the off site hard disk) as I have never been able to restore a full image archive made with Acronis True Image 10 or 11 to a new hard drive or a new computer. (This occurred at least three times). Acronis customer
service told me to use the Microsoft system preparation tool before migrating my data to a new system. What they didn't do was explain to me how I was to determine when my hard drive would fail so I could follow their procedure.
Perhaps Leo has more information on the difficulties of restoring data to a new hard drive or a new system using Acronis software.

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Comment from whs on 2008-10-28

2008-10-28T18:31:38Z

There are a few principles to which I adhere for backup:
1. Backup to an external device (typically a disk, but for small amounts of just data a USB stick may do) that can be disconnected. This is important because malware can attack anything that is running (e.g. Raid)
2. Do it on a regular schedule - I do it once every week with Norton Ghost (Acronis would be another alternative). I backup all my data on Wednesdays and my whole system on Sundays.
3. Keep as many backups as you can fit because problems sometimes manifest themselves late in the game and you may have to go back quite a bit.

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Comment from John E on 2008-10-28

2008-10-28T17:15:41Z

Now that hard disk drives are cheap, it's worth considering setting up 2 drives as a RAID mirrored pair. You'll need a motherboard that supports this sort of drive configuration, but then you have a system with built-in redundancy against failure. Of course, this doesn't prevent the need for regular backups, but if you do get a disk failure it shouldn't mean any computer downtime - just pull out the bad drive and replace it with a good one, and the RAID array should rebuild itself.

I plan to get more in depth on RAID at some point, but I do not consider it part of a backup strategy. Raid has some other, incredibly important, things that it can bring to the party, but I do not suggest implementing raid for most consumers "in case one drive dies".

- Leo
29-Oct-2008

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Comment from HandyMan on 2008-10-28

2008-10-28T16:53:39Z

Also don't overlook the use of USB flash drives. If you can't afford one big enough to contain all of your data, at least back up your 'can't live without' files to it and store it in a locked drawer in your workplace, for example.

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Comment from MistyEyes on 2008-10-28

2008-10-28T16:03:52Z

I have a question about backing up the registry. What happens to it? Do you need to do a separate registry backup or is it done automatically?
If using a program like Acronis TrueImage, or Ghost does that image the registry?
If the registry does need to be backed up also,
what is a good program to do that?
I would love to see an answer to this as I
have never seen it being addressed.

Thank you!

Then you apparently missed this article: How do I backup and restore the registry?

- Leo
29-Oct-2008

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Comment from Jim on 2008-10-28

2008-10-28T15:38:25Z

I also send a copy of any important file to myself as an e-mail attachment. The e-mail address is accessible from just about anywhere.

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Comment from Rahul Mehta on 2008-10-25

2008-10-25T11:54:32Z

My point is that don't just focus on the backup. Keep "Restore" in mind too. An old program that doesn't run anymore, an old technology for storage that is not accessible anymore and thousand other reasons can render a backup useless.

In the professional world, restoring periodically is a very valuable exercise. But how many do it? Is it too much to ask for from a home user?

It is like the airbags in my 8 year old car. The manual says they are there, the label on the car says there are there. The mechanics say they are functioning ok. But I have no idea where they are or whether they will work in that one extremely important situation. Never needing it is the best thing but they better work when needed. And I can't even test them myself.

Not so with the backups. I can test them. And I do, occasionally.

the 5.25" floppy was only a metaphor I used to say an outdated technology can render your important backups useless. And if you have important backups, you either migrate them to newer technology or have older active equipment on the standby. That includes CDs and DVDs too. May be not as fragile as the floppies (hey - am I coining a saying or what?), they have life too and that technology is evolving too.

Rahul raises a good point: every so often "test" your backups. It's something that's often done in professional situations, and it applies to home as well.

Media lifespan can be an issue; technologies fade away (floppies), and media deteriorates. I've taken to copying my oldest CD-ROM backups from 15 years ago to new media.

- Leo
25-Oct-2008

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Comment from Arjun on 2008-10-24

2008-10-24T20:07:59Z

The best way to backup I think is CD and DVD backup.

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Comment from novice on 2008-10-24

2008-10-24T16:51:41Z

5.25" floppy? do they still make those? if you have data stored several years ago it could already be lost since floppies never lasted much when i used them

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Comment from Rahul Mehta on 2008-10-23

2008-10-23T19:56:44Z

One concern I have is the availability of the backup program for restoring the data when you need it. Personally I like a backup set that can be read normally by an OS - one that does not require the same program to restore. This takes up more disk space for the backup set but these days space comes cheap.

Another space hog is the accumulation of data. No one takes a risk to really delete a backup set or files within. That means it grows... and grows....

I have a backup set on an 5.25" floppy. Does anyone have an 5.25" drive?

I agree proprietary formats can be a little off-putting. I'm comfortable because I've had good experience with what I use. However there are backup utilities that store in a more standard "zip" format that can be read by any zip-capable tool which would get you compression without a proprietary format.

- Leo
24-Oct-2008

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A comment on: How do I backup my computer?

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