Windows Vista™ Step by Step

Backing Up and Restoring Files

When file and folder were terms used to describe things made of paper, it was possible for your important documents to be permanently destroyed by fire, water, coffee, toddlers, accidental shredding, or a variety of other natural and unnatural disasters. With the advent of electronic files and folders, it is still possible for the files containing your information to be destroyed, but if you have recently backed up the information, you can recover from the loss with relatively little trouble.

Backing up is the process of creating a copy of your files somewhere other than on your computer so that you can restore them if an event such as a virus attack, hard disk failure, theft of a laptop, fire, or other loss should ...