I have never backed up my computers and I've never had one crash and lose my data. I guess I've just been lucky so far.

I have no idea how to back it up, but I know I need to buy some sort of backup disk whatchamathingey.

BEST BUY LINK

It's available today, seems like a good price, is big enough, but I have never heard of the brand name before.

So, 2 questions, is this a good one to buy, or do I need to buy something different?

And how to I back up my computer? Once it's plugged into, I assume a USB slot on my computer, what do I do then? Will it work automatically or do I need to tell it what to do? (Please don't get too technical in computer geek-speak).

Thanks
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You need to tell us what kind of computer you have first of all. That backup drive is a Western Digital, a very popular brand.

Maybe a few more details?
OS?
What is your hard drive(s) sizes?
How much data do you have?
Are you looking for a full restore or just to protect the data?
FWIW ~ nothing wrong with the drive but it may be a little small depending on what you what to backup.

Speaking from experience, set up a full backup.
Consider a second backup for data.

I use VEEAM backup. SSD HD's are reasonable now but not as important for backup as for primary HD.

It's a Lenovo IdeaPad S340, inexpensive laptop, nothing high powered or fancy. The hard drive is, I can't recall the term, it's not a spinning around hard drive, is the term solid state? Not very big, I do know that 1TB is way more than enough.

I don't know, what do I need to back up? I'm thinking all my pics, spread sheets (not much of those), other word documents.

I don't speak or understand computer geek-speak, so I hope this is helpful info.

Thanks.
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I fumbled around in control panel and found something that says 180GB free of 237GB Windows SSD.
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OKGene,

At the risk of oversimplifying it, that disk you linked to should be sufficient, provided that you only have about 300gb of data you need stored. You want room to make more than one copy of your data so that the software can update a incremental copy while leaving a complete one intact and unmolested.

The Easy Store comes with backup software--currently Acronis True Image from what I can tell. I use Acronis for my own backups, so it gets my vote.

^^^^ Thanks for your reply, much appreciated.

So the unit, once plugged into my laptop, will have on screen instructions and explanations for a know-nothing such as myself? That would be awesome.

So you should have multiple copies on the backup drive??? So do you think I should buy a larger unit, such as a 2TB?
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OK, a relatively small hard drive. It's usually recommended to use a backup drive at least twice as large as your HD. I would just get a 1T (Terabyte) drive since it's not that much more expensive.

How about the operating system (OS)?

quote:

I don't speak or understand computer geek-speak, so I hope this is helpful info.

Gene, there are a Bazillion + 4 ways to backup.
Is there someone ~ grandkid, etc that can help translate?
It is hard to do this without some hands-on presence and knowledge.
I think we can then get you backed up.

^^^^ Windows 10 ^^^^^ Sorry I should have though to list that earlier. Duh on me!! Lol.
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quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

Great, wonder, a bazalion way to do this, and you wonder why I'm confusicated, lol.

Gene, there are a Bazillion + 4 ways to backup.
Is there someone ~ grandkid, etc that can help translate?
It is hard to do this without some hands-on presence and knowledge.
I think we can then get you backed up.

Nope, no grand kids. It's something I'm going to have to figure out myself.

I'm sure it's not rocket surgery, it's just that I have no experience with it.

I'm assuming I can find some videos on Youtube, etc.

Thanks for helping me, I do greatly appreciate all yours and everyones info and advice.
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OK, you basically have a choice between using the native backup program included in Win10, or the pre-installed program on your backup drive. I'm currently using the Windows program, and it's pretty simple. But the one on your new drive may be just as easy, if not easier.

Seems to me that if you guys say that's probably a pretty decent and reliable unit, I'll just go down to Best Buy later today and buy it. Or a different one if you guys think I need.

Then I'll give it a whirl (no pun intended, after all, my existing hard drive doesn't whirl around) and see what I can do.
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To answer the second part of your question, you plug the easy store into your computer. The drive will appear as an additional hard drive in your "My Computer" window. Probably labeled "D:" whereas the drive inside your computer is always labeled "C:".

Inside the drive, will be the bundled software that Western Digital provides to you. You click on the software icon that starts the installation process for the backup software. The drive itself needs no software to function--you can immediately start copying and pasting photos and documents and leaving them on the drive as a "manual second copy". Separately, the back-up software will create a scheme where the software will run quietly in the background and periodically create "back-up" copies of your files stored to the drive.

Generally, I recommend both a "manual" second copy of irreplaceable files (photos), and also allowing the back-up software to create automatic backups. Automatic backups are not 100% reliable--as the backups themselves have a potential of getting messed up by the software constantly fiddling with the backup file. The other side of the coin, manual copies are also not 100% reliable because the end user (you) can not be depended on to regularly add new files. Best to use a layered approach and do both.

That Easystore has very good reviews, and not at all expensive. I am currently using all Western Digital backups myself, several years without problems.

^^^^ Thank you very much. ^^^

Last note:

Western Digital has, in the past, included its own WD Backup software. My understanding is that it's pretty basic, and mediocre at best.

More recently, Western Digital is now providing licenses to use Acronis True Image (normally a paid software) in partnership with Acronis.

Your Easy Store device may come pre-loaded with either software packages.

My recommendation is to go directly to Western Digital's website and download the latest copy of Acronis True Image for WD Drives. The link is here:

https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?DL=

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Automatic backups are not 100% reliable...

Unless you roll your own, as I've always done

In over thirty years of doing automated backups of network servers I've yet to have had one of my backups fail me, save once: And that had been using one-or-another commercial product on an MS-Win NT4 server.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Last note:

Western Digital has, in the past, included its own WD Backup software. My understanding is that it's pretty basic, and mediocre at best.

That's right, now that you mention it. That old WD backup software was quite mediocre, and a real pain to delete from the drive. I don't recall having such problems with the drives I'm currently running.