If you have a computer for home use or for your business and don't take comprehensive backup for full protection then you are in danger-zone. Maybe you do not take any backup at all.

You can find in Windows a basic backup utility which are installed during installation.

I should say for all Windows…,but in fact it is not included during installation of Windows XP Home Edition.

It is as if Microsoft thinks that data protection is not necessary for home computers and computers used by small businesses.

It is true that hard drives are becoming less prone to hard disk crashes.

But, if you consider not only hard disk crashes, but also virus infection, theft plus other treats, then you realize importance of implementing a full-proof backup strategy for your computer.

Today many computers are equipped with a DVD burner, yet most do not use it to manage their vital data backup. The amount of data you can store on a single DVD is several Giga Byte.

There are many types of backup you can make.

Here are steps that I take myself to fully secure my data against data loss:

1. Disk image backup. I use a disk image backup software and make a complete image backup of disk on consecutive DVDs. I also create an emergency rescue CD.

If I have a hard disk crash I’ll use this emergency CD to boot from.

But, first I have to install and setup a new hard disk that is working.

Then I can recreate data directly back from this backup stored on DVDs. This work is made fast and without need to spend time installing both operation system and backup software. Everything is instead copied directly into hard disk from DVD’s.

2. Full hard disk backup. I also use a data backup software and create a full backup of hard disk on consecutive DVD’s.

This is a standard disk backup. With this backup I'm able to restore any files and/or folders. I can also move data to another computer.