When backing up personal files, you will want to make some considerations as to what files to back up and, what type of backup media to use:

Here are some common file types that should be backed up:

• Word data files - *.doc
• Excel data files - *.xls
• Powerpoint data files - *.ppt

Some choices for backup media are:

• USB Flash drive is newer technology, comes in various sizes – 2 gigabytes is a good size that is fairly inexpensive. This media is likely the best choice as it is easy to use and reliable
• CD-R / CD-RW (700mb) requires computer to have CD burning capabilities
• External Hard Drive is very useful for large files, such as video recordings
• Floppy Disk (1.44 mb) older technology that requires the computer to have a floppy drive

To Backup Files:

1. Insert the backup media into the appropriate place in the computer i.e. burnable CD into the CD drive, USB Flash drive into a USB port, etc. An icon for the backup media should show on your desktop. For example, your USB flash drive will show as the name of the drive i.e. Kingston, Lexar, etc. If you insert a blank recordable CD, you may be presented a window asking what actions to take with the blank CD. Select Open Finder from the Action: menu and click OK. The CD icon will appear on the desktop.
2. Click any blank area on the desktop and then click File, Find… At the New Search window, click on Kind (the default) and change to Name. Contains should fill in at the next column and then type the search parameter in the third column. Example, for Word files type .doc in the third column. Your search results will appear. The most likely area for your data files will be Documents. Look to see if there is a indication of more files being available (i.e. 25 more…) and if so, click on the text indicating the amount of more files available to show the additional files.
3. From the search results, single click the appropriate file. Use shift-click for multiple files. You may also back up entire folders by selecting the folder or shift click for multiple folders.
4. Drag the file or folder icons to the backup media. Drag the icons directly onto the backup media icon and the files will copy onto the backup media.
5. If you inserted a blank recordable CD and are finished copying files to the CD, click File, Burn Disc… and follow the prompts at the window that appears to burn the files to the CD.