Tell me how to back up files etc...

I've had my Vista for a couple years or so. I've never backed anything up. I've never saved anything on a CD (haha almost said "disk"). What can I safely get rid of (put on a CD but be able to use it later WITHOUT re-copying it onto my computer)?
I have countless games on my system. But I also have a ton of pictures.

My C drive tells me: "3.66 GB free of 232 GB" lol
I have several more SIMS 2 expansions to add but my space is getting critically low.
How do I decide what can stay and what can go?

Doesn't Vista have a Time Machine equivalent? If not I'm sure there are automatic backup programs that you can buy. Go to Best Buy and as a sales rep.

for extra space, you should buy a usb hard drive. A number of years ago my dad bought one, 160GB for about 100 bucks. By now you can probably get more for a lot less, too.

It depends how far you want to go

Bearing in mind, a complete system failure would mean
- Reinstall & authenticate OS
- Reinstall all the updates
- Reinstall (& authenticate, if applicable) applications / games
- etc., etc.

9 times out of 10, you'll have lost all those CD key numbers for things, and you'll end up nabbing them off of a torrent site

all in all, you'll spend an entire day just getting back to where you were, and likely commit several acts of piracy in the process

Buy a second hard disk,
and mirror your main disk
Stick the backup drive in a cupboard, and re-mirror every month or so (Shouldn't take more than 30 mins to mirror a disk - make sure you use a decent backup method, with error checking etc.)

For day-to-day backing up of important stuff, just use CD-R's until the next time you mirror the hard disk

System dies, bung the other disk in
10 minutes downtime

Take a look at backing up at least all your personal files onto a separate hard drive, look at some externals at a place like newegg, tigerdirect, or w/e you like online. I wouldn't bother with best buy personally but its all up to you.

If you want to clone your entire disk so that if worse comes to worse you boot into a cd and get your system back try CloneZilla (open source and free) or Norton Ghost (closed source and costing money). You can back your whole hard drive up onto a medium of a bigger size and merely reimage your computer should anything go astray. This way there are no hassles of reinstalling and rebuilding, everything is just EXACTLY as it was when you imaged and backed up your computer.

If that is too much of a hassle as least move your personal "cannot loose" things like photos and such to an external hard drive or even cd/dvd/bd depending on what you have and how much of it you have as well as what you can burn to. Seriously back up your stuff before you loose it, and do so regularly. No point not to.

EDIT: Ynot's idea of mirroring is good too, if you can afford a second hard drive of equal size on a desktop system you can set up a simple raid 1 array that automatically backs up your data IN REAL TIME. This eliminates the need to remember to do it yourself and you can just leave the hard drive in the computer, if one fails your system will just use the other one. Make sure you system supports this before attempting, for some reason I assumed your using a laptop though so you might just be better off moving files to an external hard drive or imaging it if you want to be more technical and complete.

Also you seem to be asking what you can delete and what you can keep, that is personal preference and if you get an external hard drive you can just put things there too as opposed to deleting what you already have. Still backing up your personal stuff is a good idea.

Thanks everyone! I'll start looking into some free servers to hold somethings and I'll buy some CD-R's for the rest. I'll talk to hubby about getting me an external hard drive, but I fear it's above my knowledge level... Mirroring completely confuses me :D
When I move at the end of this month, I'm losing high speed internet and having to go back to a modem *cries*, so I'd prefer to keep my important files close at hand.

don't put important stuff on the web
that's like taping your bank statement to your window pane
anyone who takes the time to look hard will read them

I reformat once or twice a year. When I get to this process I basically make a folder on my desktop called TO KEEP. Then, I organize nearly every file on my computer based on whether or not I'd mind if I lost it, and then by what it is. What helps if you're on windows is to do a search for pictures, make sure everything you want ends up in the folder. Do a search for documents and do the same. Just be thorough and make sure you've searched every nook and cranny of your computer. Once I have everything organized, I delete everything I don't want. I try to make sure I have all the updates and everything also saved. I typically have a folder called Program Installation Files which are things like the setup file for firefox, itunes, winzip, things that would be a pain to find again that I already have. Since you're going back to a modem, I highly recommend this so that you don't have to waste years downloading stupid things that you've already got and wouldn't take but a few minutes to backup.

I backup to either cd-r or dvd-r. DVD-R discs will be able to hold much more. Depending on how much you've got, you shouldn't end up using TOO many of these. I always make doubles of each CD, but I'm anal like that :sheepishgrin:

You should have some sort of CD burning program. If not, it shouldn't be hard to pick one up. If you've got a computer that can run the sims 2, you most likely have this already. Just open your program, select the 'make a data cd' or 'backup data' or whatever option, squeeze as much onto each DVD as possible, and label well.

For the average user, I think nearly anything you put onto a CD you can later access without having to move it back onto your computer. If you NEED something, you can just drag it on, use it, then delete again. If you want to keep it on the CD you can, but it could take a bit longer.

I'm not the most tech savvy out there, but this is incredibly simple and has served me well for years.

I am completely and hopelessly clueless about these things lol.
I bought a 10 pack of DVD+R and a 5 pack of CD-R. For the past 4 hours, I've been organizing all my pics and some of my documents into new folders I placed on the DVD+R. I was so terrified of losing everything (the new organization work) that I created another folder on my desktop "ToBurnCD" lol and copied everything from the DVD to the desktop :roll:
But I see no "Burn" option. I tried "installing" everything once I filled the DVD up but it wasn't allowed (I didn't think I could, the wording made me think of exe files which wasn't what I was doing).

If I simply take the DVD out will everything be on it? Will it be *gulp* safe to erase those things from my desktop? What about my internet page saves? Some were saved not as htm/l but as php and phtml, as well as flash files. ???

Am I doing something wrong lol or is everything as it should be?

Thanks again for all the assistance.

**Edit**
There IS a "format" option when I right click the DVD... but wouldn't that erase everything instead of burning it?

:mad::bang::pissed::sniper::damnit:

GRRRRRRRRR!!! How the frack do you DELETE the Recycling bin?!!!!!!!
I'm about to throw a major tantrum.

I decided to suck it up and find out the what-if's about my DVD questions and it was all working so wonderfully.
I slowly deleted all my pics, then checked the DVD and reassured myself that all was well.

Then I accidentally clicked "delete" instead of "empty recycling bin" and not only did the shortcut I had created disappear, but the main app did as well.
It's just like MS Paint all over again.

How the heck can I TRULY delete extra space from my machine if I can't empty the fracking recycling bin?!!! :embarrassed:

**Edit**
Once again: God bless Google. I now have my bin back thanks to http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/0...ktop-in-vista/
Now let me see if I can find MS Paint :D :boogie:

***Edit***
Happy/happy, joy/joy!! I now have MSPaint back as well. I feel so independent lol
(I simply copy/pasted "%SystemRoot%\system32\mspaint.exe" into the search box)