Backing up windows 8

I recently bought a laptop from pc world, nothing special just a basic hp one running windows 8
anyway the annoying salesman said it was very important that i backed up windows? he offered to do it there for an extra 40 pound but he also said my computer would be ruined within a year if i didn't spend £40 on their antivirus stuff.
anyway a couple of weeks on i still haven't backed up windows, is it really as important as they say or are they just trying to get my money?
also, because i'm no good with computers, how would i go about backing things up? they were trying to sell me a 32gb usb stick as well. is that required?
any advice would be appreciated here, cheers :)

Comments

  • barky99barky99 Posts: 3,921
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    step 1 - burn a rescue dvd
    step 2 - make sure there's decent anti-malware/virus on computer
    step 3 - make a disk image & save it to an external hard drive (I use macrium reflect for this BUT there are other options)
  • call100call100 Posts: 7,264
    Forum Member
    You could simply use the built in File history.......See here to set it up etc.
    As an aside....Don't worry about anything a PCworld sales 'advisor' says....It's mostly sales rubbish and not applicable to the real world....
  • John259John259 Posts: 28,322
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    I would suggest that there are (at least) two separate concerns here:

    1. How to back up the system - something you only need to do occasionally.

    2. How to back up your data (documents, photos, etc) - something best done regularly, perhaps once a week.

    How you do each of these is (usually) quite different.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 754
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    thank you for the replies! i'll look into the file history link later on, also i have a hard drive that i save my music and files onto every month or so in case the computer goes wrong that's covered.

    :)
  • oilmanoilman Posts: 4,529
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    Hi,
    Backing uo windows 8 (or any version) is very sensible.

    Assuming PC comes with Windows 8 installed but no installation disks then does you PC come with a manufacturers recovery option. You will normally create some DVDs for emergency recovery. You should get details as part of purchase. These disks will return to inital state before you add any files.

    I agree with barky99 - use of a package like Macrium Reflect is really great. As he says there are others but I have checked this with windows 8 and it works well.

    Also, windows 8 itself can create a complete disk image. It is a bit hard to find as it is called windows 7 backup which is misleading. Contrary to many current reviews it still exists under Windows 8.1 under the file history section (even harder to find!).

    Peronally, I would make a copy with both macrium and windows. If you do this every so often (e,g, 1 month as suggested above), you should never need to put the PC back to its original state (unless selling it).

    Do not pay your IT guy any money. Use the money towards a 1+TB external drive for backups.

    Also I know this depends on individual requirements, but 32GB usb sticks are not really much use unless you want to carry lots of data around. They are not big enough to act as system image backups. You are probably better off with (say) 4x8GB sticks.


    There are many good free anti virus checkers e.g. AVG free Search web with say "antivrus free review", and you should get lots of information. For most usage, these are generally adequate, assuming you back up regularly.
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