You will need to purchase an external hard drive to back up your data to. ResNet recommends the Western Digital brand of external hard disks, and they are available for purchase at the Shaheen Bookstore (and may be charged to your student account), Amazon.com, and Best Buy.

1. Connect your external hard drive to your computer.

2. Click Start, select All Programs, select Accessories, select System Tools, and then click Backup to start the wizard.

3. Click Next to skip past the opening page, choose Back up files and settings from the second page, and then click Next.

4. For most people, the My documents and settings option is the best choice. This selection preserves your data files (including e-mail messages and address books) and the personal settings stored in the Windows Registry.

5. On the Backup Type, Destination, and Name page, Windows asks you to specify a backup location. Select your external hard drive.

6. After you've chosen a backup location, enter a descriptive name for the file, click Next to display the wizard's final page, and then click Finish to begin backing up immediately.

7. To set up an automatic backup schedule for Windows, don't click Finish when you get to the final page of the Backup Wizard. Instead, click the Advanced button, and click Next to open the When to Back Up page. Choose Later, and then click Set Schedule to open the Schedule Job dialog box.

Don't forget to keep your computer turned on for the scheduled backups!