Windows XP; back up files

[Maurice]

I have XP Home, & I understand the initial procedure to back up files, I've got as far as System Tools, but it bewilders me from then on in,.....knowing me, are you surprised?.
Can some kind soul help me out again, & take me through the procedure, step by step, as simple as you can?, yes, I know, you've been here before, showing me the path through things that are simple procedures to most of you, & I'm grateful,.....one more time, huh?
I feel very vulnerable to viruses, as we all do, some more than others, I have a pretty good AV, but it didn't stop me getting My Doom, & a trojan, there's far worse out there, there is also the possibility of hard drive failure to think about, & I'd feel a lot safer if my files were backed up.
Does back up take you through all your existing files, & ask yes/no, if you want to save them, then you click on save to DVD-R?, mine are 4.7Gb General purpose, is it as simple as that, am I making a mountain out of a mole-hill? [as per usual]
Finally, if the worst does happen, I presume that I just put the disc in, & it automatically restores all, it seems to good to be true, are there some out there that have been through this themselves?, I guess that there are.

Maurice

 

[poertner_1274]

Well as far as backing up your data, you can easily just choose to burn it to your DVD-R. You will be able to store pictures, documents, songs, general stuff like that. However you won't be able to back up your programs. Those will have to be reinstalled.
I have done this many times with CD-R's and it works fine. You can use any burning software you have and just create an .iso disc. Then just drag and drop anything you want to back up. If all goes wrong and you want to put them on your new computer, then just put the disc in and copy them back to wherever you want.

 

[Maurice]

Thanks poertner, but I just can't understand some technical terms, for example what is an "iso disc"?, things have to be explained to me, in the most basic way, imagine that I've only just taken up using a computer this week, it's been over eighteen months, but the grey matter doesn't absorb info so fast, as you get older, I'm very sharp in all other things, but some techno terms/procedures elude me, especially drag & drop, I can only do this with icons, to transfer them into my tray.
Are you saying that it isn't just a straightforward procedure, as I had hoped in my query, I think that basically I have got programmes & files confused, am I correct?

Maurice

 

[SNGX1275]

For WindowsXP if you want to backup your images/movies/documents you can just drag them to your dvd burner drive and drop them there.
Single click on the icon, keep the button pressed down on that 1 click, drag that item over the dvd drive icon (you will need 2 windows open on the desktop to do this in simpliest fashon) and then when your dvd drive icon turns dark let go of the left mouse button (the one you single clicked and held down).
Then open up your dvd burner drive after you have dragged everythign you want backed up there. Right click in that window but not on a file, then "write these files to cd" or somethign similar.
Windows will give you a wizard and you follow that.

Backing up programs you have installed isn't that simple, you will need the original install files (which you should have unless you deleted them after downloading).

Now if you want to have things backed up where you won't have to reinstall the programs you will need a 3rd party program, and it will not be as simple as drag and drop. If thats what you really want then post back or use TS search. Norton Ghost is such a program, and there are some others as well, I know Rick and Goalie have one that isn't Ghost that they like.

EDIT: Found what Rick and Goalie like

From Rick's Post in this thread: https://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13937

Talk about no excuses!

I use Acronis True Image 7 to backup my drive while in Windows. I don't even have to click on it.. It does for me.. And only when I'm not using the computer!

Worried about long backup times? Not a problem... Acronis supports incremental imaging, cutting my usual image time from 2 hours to a mere 15-20 minutes after the initial backup you create.