Geek Squad charges $100 to make a backup disc.

It's a 2 1/2 year old Dell desktop. I'm not really having too many issues with it (except the sound thing), but it does need to be taken apart and physically cleaned, at the very least. That, I cannot do myself.

this is more of a preventative maintenance thing. Like I said, a tune-up. Doesn't this make sense?

Have you ever cleaned the crumbs out of your toaster? Cleaning, (just cleaning, mind you) the inside of your computer is about that difficult. Well, you need a screwdriver maybe. You could do it.

I bet you can fix your soundcard problem too. Once you get to the Device Manager screen following the instructions above, at the top of the list is your computer, followed by a long slightly indented list of the components of your computer. The trick here is to "tell" your computer that you have some hardware you want to reinstall. Start by right clicking on the name of your computer at the top of the list, and choosing Scan for new hardware. This will take a short time. It may find something. If it does, then we're off to following the prompts on the Add new hardware wizard, pretty easy.

It will be even easier if you have the blue and white Dell Device Drivers disk handy when you're doing this part, since that's where the software for the soundcard hardware will be found (if it's not already installed on your computer). The system will offer you a chance to let it try to install the hardware itself. This is the best first choice. You've nothing to lose by trying this. If it works, great. If it doesn't all you've lost is five minutes.

Now if the Scan for new hardware doesn't find any new hardware, you may have to prod your system a little more. It's your Audio subsystem you're fixing, right? Ok, in the list of components in your Device Manager screen, walk down the list until you get to the section labeled Sound, video and game controllers. Click on the little plus sign on the left (this is what's called expanding the list) and look for the thing closest to the illustration posted here. Something like "Multimedia controller" or words to that effect.

You may see a warning symbol next to the component. The easiest way to fix it is it delete it and rediscover it and reinstall it and see what happens. Worst case is you're back where you started. To delete the item, right click and choose remove (yes, you're sure). Then, right click on the level higher (even all the way up to the top of the tree your computer) and choose scan for new hardware. Then it will (probably) find it again, and you'll get a shot at letting the computer reinstall it.

Are you doing this now? Cause it'd be nice to get some feedback as to what obstacles you're facing. I have a lot of this memorized, but not all the possible errors, even though they're all solvable. This is much easier to walk through together than it is to write up a comprehensive all possible paths document you can print out and follow (manymany pages). Just curious.

Rexmons:

Feel free to "flex" your "shit". How else can Cloud make an informed decision if she isn't able to hear the different sides of the conversation? (ps Cloud, I forgot--Why don't you ask one of your tech bois to recommend some professional stranger? That way you get the best of both worlds. Someone you trust (by association) and the comfort of an anonymous stranger whose fur revelations you'll never have to hear about in the office. Hmm? )

Anyway, back to the original question:

Q -- How to back up a home computer.

Rex, you say:

1 -- DVD burning.
2 -- Online backups.
3 -- RAID.
4 -- SSD.

So, before I start jawin' atcha, would you mind explaining how you get from Q to 1 and from Q to 2, etc etc? Yeah, I'm calling you out, but in a non "shit-flexing" way. :p

I will take another look at it tonight when I get home.

Regardless of the difference of opinion here, I get that y'all are trying to help, and I really appreciate it!

For inner cleaning, I use 4 compressed air cans. Take the system outdoors on a windy day, or into a person's house whom you do not like. Remove both side panels or otherwise open the system so that wind can blow through it. The cans freeze after about 30 seconds, so I alternate cans. I do the vents and power supply first but keep enough compression of air around to hit the inner fans.

"Q to 1 and from Q to 2"

what does this mean?

what you guys are failing to appreciate is my total lack of mechanical and technical skills. I take things apart and can't get them together. And it's not because I'm a "gurl"; and it's not because I don't try--it because I suck at it. I call Daughter No. 1 for anything requiring detailed hand-eye coordination, tools, or mechanical aptitude.

I'm willing to learn new skills, but by now I know my limits!

And UT . . . for inner cleaning I usually use prunes. But I think that would make kind of a mess in my 'puter!

!BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP!

(I'm backing up--get it? hardehar) :)

How does 1 -- DVD burning meet the goal of backing up a home computer?

How does 2 -- Online backups do a backup of a home computer?

How does 3 -- RAID backup a home computer?

How does 4 -- SSD backup a home computer?

Before I start hassling you about "you're wrong!!!" I just want to know how you get to the desired end result of a backed up home computer using the examples you posted. Fair warning, I'm going to ask the follow up question about restoring from the same backups. I believe it's only fair, since a backup strategy that doesn't include how to restore is only a fig leaf.
You'll forgive me if I reserve my trust for the time being. I will however generously offer you my attention and an open mind for you to demonstrate your point. You have the chance to convince me and educate Cloud and the others here. Please, continue.

Online backups do a backup of a home computer. For $5/month you can back up 50GB of data with this service. I expect one runs a program locally that just slowly streams files out to the remote server.

And if your computer won't boot? All the backups in the world won't help you. You need an image of the whole show. IMHO. :bolt:

Ever see a diary with a little clasp to hold it shut?
Opening and closing your Dell is that easy. You're not really taking it apart. At 2 1/2 years old, you might have one that has catches and you don't even need a screwdriver to open it.

You need a booting computer to do any kind of restore, image or no.

Sorry UT. I thought about it after I went to bed. Should have said
"Windows or OS won't load." I guess

BigV,

There are primarily two kinds of "backups" you can do. One involves cloning, or making an exact copy of your HDD (aka ghost image), and the other involves just backing up your personal data (favorites, my documents, desktop items, PST folders, and any other data files you may have hidden somewhere on your HDD). Almost all of computer manufactures provide you with what’s called a Recovery CD/DVD, which is really just a ghost image of your HDD. The recovery disk will reinstall your operating system, all your device drivers, and any crappy software that usually comes with your computer. Because they give you this recovery disk, the best type of backup to do is usually the one, where you transfer over just your files and not make an exact copy of your HDD. The reason for this is that you don’t want to transfer over all the junk too. Over time, your HDD fills up with several unnecessary temporary files, cookies, spyware, viruses, and other useless stuff. Most people notice that over time there HDD’s will begin running slower than when they first purchased there computers, this is usually why. Now to answer your questions about how you can backup using the methods I listed before, here’s how:

DVD meets the goal in two ways:
1. you can either clone the HDD and make your own recovery disk using a program like Norton Ghost, or
2. You can just burn your personal data onto the DVD and make a data disk.

Online backups are primarily used to save normal data files (music, video, pictures, and office files) but you can also backup a .GHO file, which is an image of your entire HDD.

Raid, or Raid 5 to be more specific requires multiple HDD’s to hold a little piece of data about another drive, then if that drive goes down, they can fill in the blanks. Here’s a diagram:
http://wiki.emdstorage.com/uploads/RAID/RAID_6.gif

SSD or Solid State Disk is no different from a regular HDD except that it has NO moving parts. This means the failure rate is VERY low. In essence a SSD is like a giant USB flash/thumb drive. Takes a lickin and keeps on tickin.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that you don't have to back up your whole hard drive - just your data files (anything you created). For most folks this will be

Word files
pictures
movies
mp3s
email

I just backed up yesterday. In my case I ended up with two DVDs of mp3s and one DVD of source code, text documents etc. That's ~ 12 gig versus backing up both hard drives which would have been ~ 60 gig.

Everything else is stuff that I can reinstall from the original CDs or by downloading from the net.