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The single most important thing that any computer user and certainly a business should do is to backup your data and/or your whole system at least weekly.
You need to have a plan and system in place that allows for easy, unattended backup on a regular basis. The backup media should be removable from the location of the primary data for ultimate protection. There are many backup programs out there including those built into windows, however these are not the best solution. The primary reason is that you will need a functional system with that program installed and running in order to restore your system.
Our recommended solution is an external USB hard drive, these are relatively inexpensive and much faster and more flexible than Tape or CD backups. They also allow for much easier restoration of some or all of the data, if properly setup. You can backup as many computers as space allows to one disk even if the computers are not networked or in one location. If your BIOS supports booting to a USB device (most of the later ones do)then your USB drive should be set up with your current operating system. So if your hard drive dies then all you have to do is boot to your backup drive.
To backup the Windows Registry follow the procedures, here. You should do this before and after you add hardware or software to you system.
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