The Best Way to Back Up?

[valpal]

Hi! I have an external HD that I am now using to back up data from my PC. What I have been doing is weekly copying my personal folders from my pc to a folder on my hard drive and not using the Windows 7 back up and restore. I would like to automatically back up my data and for it to back up only what has been changed I want to start using Windows 7 back up and restore ,but was wondering if I do use Windows 7 back up could I restore it to any OS? For instance, if my pc crashes that has win7 can i restore my back up to another PC that has XP? Is there a way to run a back up that backs up all installed programs along with my documents and ect? How do you guys back up your data?

 

[pparks1]

I use robocopy to backup personal data to an external hard drive. It just copies changes since the last time, and doesn't put the files into any type of container file...they are just the raw files on the external hard drive. So, no fuss, no muss..when restoring data.

Then I use an imaging program (Acronis) in my case to do a system image of my workstation.