240
If Something Goes Wrong
Develop good computing habits
5.375 x 8.375 ver 2.3
Backing up your data to CDs with Windows
®
XP
For most of us, by far the most valuable component of our
computer system is the data we have created with it, and
stored on its hard disk drive. Since problems with either
hardware or software can make the data inaccessible or even
destroy it, the next most valuable component of your
computer system may be a recent backup of your data.
Fortunately, Windows
®
XP offers a convenient way to back
up your important data files to CDs, a relatively high-
capacity storage media. No additional software is required.
Most of the CD and DVD drives built into recent Toshiba
portable computer models can write to (or ‘burn’) as well as
read from CDs. External CD and DVD writers are also
widely available.
Follow these steps to back up files in the
My Documents
folder to one or more CDs:
1
Put a blank CD-R (CD-recordable) disc into the
computer’s CD or DVD drive.
2
A menu of options will appear. Select
Open writable
CD folder using Windows
®
Explorer
, and click
OK
.
3
A Windows
®
Explorer window will open for the blank
CD. This window will be referred to as “the CD
window.”
4
Open a second Windows
®
Explorer window by clicking
Start
, and then clicking
My Computer
.
5
In this second window, browse to the files you wish to
back up. Click the down-pointing arrow at the upper right
of the window (to the left of the
Go
button) to see a list of
locations that includes
My Documents
—a likely
location of your data.