The most important component of your computer is your data. Everything else can be replaced but not your data. With constantly evolving threats such as viruses, malware, power failures, floods and other dangers it is important to ensure that you back up your data on a regular basis. There are many programs out there that will automate this process for you. Some are good some are not. This article will discuss a manual process that is simple and built into Windows XP. We are talking about the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, more commonly known as F.A.S.T. This program is primarily meant as a means to simplify moving your data from one computer to another when you upgrade. However it also provides a simply method for backing up all of your data.

This first issue is that you should be storing your information within the My Documents folder structure. While the F.A.S.T. wizard will search your entire hard drive for music and pictures it will collect all the files within the My Documents folder even if it doesn't know what that file is. The F.A.S.T. wizard also works on a user basis. This means that it will only collect the data relevent to the currently logged in user which makes this an ideal program for backing up one user at a time. This allows your to restore on a user by user basis and not the whole machine at once.

The following instructions will help you to back-up your data using the F.A.S.T. Wizard.

1. Log into Windows XP under the user account you wish to back-up.

2 Access the F.A.S.T. Wizard. Navigate to the Start Button then All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, File and Settings Trasnfer Wizard.

3. The third page to be displayed asks us if we are restoring or applying a previous collection to a New Computer or if we this is the Old Computer that we want to back up. Be sure to select the option for Old Computer. Once Old Computer is selected you can press Next. You will then be presented by a screen stating that the wizard is being initialized.

4. You will now be presented with some options on where you wish to store the back-up. If you are performing a back-up then select the Option "Other" and then click the browse button to specify the location. It is important to know that the back-up files will always be given the same name. So if any previous back-ups exist in the specified location they will be overwritten. If you want to have multiple back-ups then create a seperate folder for each. If you are backing up more than one user then it is recommended to create a folder for each user and place the back-up files in the appropriate users folder. In the images below a storage folder for the user Guest has been specified on a network attached hard drive.

5. Now to select the data to back-up. The wizard automatically selects both Files and Settings for the specified user account. You can specify additional locations or files types to be backed up. Anything in the My Documents folder structure for the logged in user will be collected. The wizard will also search the hard drive for office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access) as well as images and music files. If you have stored large amounts of these files outside of the My Documents folder structure they will end up being collected for each user you back-up. It will also increase the collection time for each user and created bloat in the file size.

6. You will now be presented with a screen showing what information will be collected and allowing you the opportunity to customize the collection and locations searched. Be sure to select both Files and Settings, this is the default. The default settings are generally adaquate for backing up your data. Once satisfied simple press Next

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7. You will now be presented with the collection screen followed by the completed screen. The amount of time that the collection process will take is dependant on the amount of data that you have. The larger the amount of data the longer the collection process will take.

You have now successfully completed backing up your data for the current user account. Be sure to complete the process for each user account that exists on the computer.