Windows 8 help with backup

[Tempest Sharp]

I just purchased a new computer with windows 8. so far i\'m not liking it. too hard to understand all the small thiings to know.
My BIGGEST QUESTION RIGHT NOW,,,,,,,,,, SHOULD I DO A BACKUP AND SHOULD I DO IT ON A EXTERNAL HARDDRIVE, OR SHOULD I DO IT ON DISKS,,,,,, AND BY DOING THIS WILL I LOSE ANYTHING ON MY COMPUTER?

 

[kemical]

Hi Tempest,

cool name by the way, Welcome to the forum.

It's always a good idea to have a back up of some sorts and this web page will give you a little more insight on the pros and cons of different ways of going about it:

HowStuffWorks "External Hard Drive Backup Options"

Windows 8 can be a little daunting to the new user however we do have a Tutorial section which has some great guides listed. If you don't find what your looking for then please post back:

Windows 8 Tutorials and Training

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

If you aren't liking the Windows 8 interface you can check out Classic Shell, it will let you make the interface look and work like Windows 7 or Windows XP.

I hate to admit I just couldn't make Widows 8 work for me.
It drove me crazy so I've been using Classic Shell starting in beta.

It works really well and I actually used in in Windows 7 for years too!
It never caused any problems and you can switch back and forth with a click.

Welcome to Classic Shell

If you decide to stick it out and use the Metro UI good luck!
I give you credit for not taking the easy way out.

I'm sure that Windows OSs in the future will all look like this.
but I'm 74 and don't expect to have to use them.

The safest backup you can do it to disks, (just make one and put it away in case the worst happens it will at least get you back up and running but it's hard to keep updated) I do mine to a separate hard drive in my computer and to an external hard drive as well.

I also backup all my important data to an external hard drive not using any backup software.

Just copy all the really important stuff, Pictures, Music, Downloaded Software ect. to and external hard drive then turn it off till you need to use it again.

The stuff will always be available without the need for any kind of recovery software, (which in my experience doesn't always work) it's safer not to have the data compressed into some weird format that you computer can't read.

Just my opinion.

I have stuff going back 20 years so I actually back everything up to 2 external hard drives so I have 3 copies of everything.

This came in handy lately when my computer got hit by lightning, I didn't lose anything but I do unplug everything with a master plug when we have a electrical storm now. I also unplug my router from the cable, I've been hit that way in the past too.

Mike