Which Files Should You Back Up On Your Windows PC?

Which Files Should You Back Up On Your Windows PC?

Your PC’s hard constrain may possibly fail tomorrow, or a software bug may possibly erase your put in storage, so endorsements are grave. But you don’t hardship to back up all the put in storage on your PC. That would just fritter away break and make your endorsements take longer to thorough.

The All-Important Rule of Backups
The most weighty rule of endorsements is that any weighty statistics should stay alive in two or more raw spots at just the once. You cannot make a endorsement and remove the creative. If you do, it’s no longer in fact a endorsement. You immobile boast just one copy of your statistics—you just stimulated it to a discrete position.
You might ponder this is clear, but you’d be bowled greater than how often we’ve been approached by readers that lost their statistics following their “endorsement” constrain died.
How to Back Up Your put in storage
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What’s the Best Way to Back Up My Computer?
in attendance are many ways to back up your statistics, from help up to an peripheral constrain to uploading copies of your statistics to a isolated server greater than the Internet. You can use the tools integrated into Windows or download a third-party endorsement tool. Choose the best endorsement solution that factory for you—we converse some of our favorites at this point.
We also suggest with manifold types of endorsements for greatest statistics security. representing model, if you put in storage your sole endorsement constrain next to your notebook, you’ll lose all copies of your put in storage if your hardware is ever stolen or hurt in a launch. So having a endorsement in the cloud is a safe idea.
Back Up Your put in storage, Not Your Full usage
in attendance are two types of endorsements you can make. Most common endorsement tools will back up a list of put in storage and folders you relate. This allows you to back up just the put in storage and folders you hardship. Your endorsements won’t be any top than they hardship to be, and they’ll thorough quickly.
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How to make a usage impression Backup in Windows 7, 8, or 10
immobile, it’s also viable to make full usage impression endorsements of your notebook’s hard constrain with built-in or third-party tools. These will back up all, from your Windows usage book and installed plan put in storage to your own statistics. These endorsements will be much top and take much longer to make.
representing most nation, we suggest you stab with just help up your put in storage and folders. usage impression endorsements thud nice, but in attendance are some big catches. representing model, you can’t with no trouble reput in storage a usage impression on one more notebook, as a Windows installation will in universal only run appropriately on its creative usage. You’re top off just preliminary from a clean Windows installation and reinstalling your plans.
usage impression endorsements boast their position, but avoid them but for you’re sure you hardship them. They’re not the best universal purpose endorsement solution.
put in storage You must Back Up

The most weighty thing is to back up your own put in storage. On a fresh Windows PC, you’ll in universal find these beneath C:\Windows\USERNAME, allposition USERNAME is your user explanation name.
By duck, this book contains your user explanation’s statistics folders. These comprise the ID folder allposition your documents are saved to by duck, the cinema folder that apt contains any family unit unit photos you boast, the Downloads folder allposition put in storage are downloaded, the melody folder allposition your melody put in storage are perhaps put in storaged, and the Videos folder allposition videos are put in storaged. If you use iTunes for your melody, iTunes put in storages its melody library in your melody folder by duck. It even comprises your Desktop folder, allposition many nation put in storage put in storage.
It also comprises additional weighty folders, like Oneconstrain, Dropbox, and Google constrain, allposition offline copies of your cloud put in storage are put in storaged if you use these services.
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What Is the AppData Folder in Windows?
in attendance’s also an AppData folder at this point, but you won’t see it but for you’re showing cgreater thant put in storage and folders. This is allposition plans put in storage the spots and statistics special to your user explanation. You may be able to use this statistics to reput in storage an individual plan’s spots if you ever hardship to recapture from a endorsement.

With that in care, we suggest you back up your complete user explanation book, including the cgreater thant AppData folder. This make certains you boast all your own put in storage and spots, and you don’t boast to throw away much epoch pondering concerning it. If manifold nation use the same PC and boast their own put in storage, back up each user explanation’s folder.
You may go for to exclude positive folders from the endorsement if you don’t want them represent. representing model, if you put in storage a bunch of downloaded videos in the Videos folder and you don’t care redownloading them in the impending, exclude it from the endorsement. If you boast a many gigabytes of virtual apparatus that take a bulky quantity of break and you wouldn’t care spot them up from scrape once more, exclude the virtual appliance folder. But, if persons virtual apparatus are weighty and it would take you a safe quantity of epoch to configure them once more, you perhaps want to back them up.

You’ll remark that we’re with a lot of expressions like “by duck”, “apt”, and “perhaps” when motto allposition your put in storage are put in storaged. That’s for the raison d'?tre that Windows lets you put in storage your put in storage in any spot you like. If you stimulated them, only you know allposition all your put in storage are put in storaged.
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How to Move Your ID, melody, and additional Folders Someallposition Else in Windows
representing model, it’s easy to move a folder like melody, Videos, Downloads, cinema, or ID to one more spot on your PC. These put in storage may be put in storaged on one more constrain, for model. Or you may not use the duck folders at all and in basic terms dump put in storage in a folder elseallposition on your PC’s hard constrain. If you put in storage your put in storage in non-standard spots like this, it’s crucial you relate the folders containing your weighty put in storage and add them to the endorsement.
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How to Sync Your Browser Bookmarks, Extensions, and additional Data Between Computers
Your browser’s bookmarks and additional spots are located someallposition in the AppData folder, so help up your complete user folder will save these put in storage as well. immobile, you may want to use your browser’s sync trait and sync its spots with a Google, Firefox, or Microsoft explanation. This will save you from having to dig by means of your AppData folder.
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If you use a desktop contact client, you may also want to back up your contacts. This isn’t needed if you use the fresh IMAP protocol for your contact, as the master copies of your contacts are immobile put in storaged on the isolated server. immobile, if you’ve downloaded contacts via the POP3 protocol, it’s crucial you back up your contacts as they may only be put in storaged on your PC.

The safe news is that your contacts are apt put in storaged in your user explanation’s AppData folder, so they’ll be by design backed up if you back up your complete user folder. You may immobile want to test the spot of your contact put in storage just to make certain they’re backed up, still. Here’s how to find the spot allposition Outlook put in storages your contacts.

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What Is the planData Folder in Windows?
some additional own statistics and spots that aren’t located in your user explanation folder should be backed up, if you care concerning it. representing model, you may want to back up request spots that are located in the C:\planData folder for some requests.
PC athletic competition in particular boast put in storage all greater than the position. Many athletic competition harmonize their save put in storage online with Steam Cloud or a like service, so they won’t hardship endorsements. Many put in storage their save athletic competition in your ID or AppData folders, although additionals dump their save athletic competition in C:\planData or one more spot, like someallposition in your Steam folder. The PCGamingWiki website has a safe statisticsbase of athletic competition with in rank concerning whether they harmonize their save athletic competition or not and just allposition their save put in storage are located on your PC.
Ensure what statistics you care concerning—whether it’s your family unit unit photos, spots for a mission-grave request, or save athletic competition for that RPG you’ve been singing for 100 hours—is backed up.
put in storage You mustn’t Back Up

in attendance’s not at all a raison d'?tre to back up your Windows book or plan put in storage folder. Leave these folders alone.
The Windows book contains Windows usage put in storage, and they aren’t portable connecting discrete PC hardware. Windows will set up these put in storage when it’s installed on a new PC, so you don’t hardship them.
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The plan put in storage folder contains put in storage for your installed requests. You frequently can’t just copy these folders greater than. You’ll boast to reinstall most requests from scrape, so in attendance’s in universal no point in help up this folder.
A handful of plans can be in basic terms stimulated connecting PCs. representing model, you can back up your Steam or Battle.net directories and copy them greater than to a new PC, reduction the big download of these athletic competition. immobile, even these folders aren’t grave to back up. They can make spot up a new PC nearer and save some of download epoch, but they aren’t full of grave put in storage you can not at all get back. You can forever just reinstall your plans, so they aren’t the priority if you’re restricted on break.
Back Up Regularly
Once you’ve in progress help up your put in storage, you should go on creating regular endorsements. Back up your put in storage daily, if viable. This will be a fast deal with if you back up frequently, as your endorsement tool will just back up the few own put in storage that boast changed.
Automating your endorsements helps make certain persons endorsements get performed frequently. That’s one raison d'?tre why online endorsement solutions are so safe. They can be configured to by design back up your PC all day when you aren’t with your notebook, so you won’t even boast to ponder concerning it.