Curt Simmons - Windows 11 For Seniors For Dummies

Creating and storing backup files

Restoring a failed computer

Some of your files — photos and documents — are priceless. If you accidentally delete a treasured file, what can you do but cry? You can insure your well-being by creating copies of your documents and photos.

The best insurance involves storing copies of files on devices separate from your computer. Such devices include the following:

Flash drive and memory card:Carry your files when you’re away from your computer by storing them on a portable storage device. For example, you can store files on a USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive ), or a memory card, which is the size of a postage stamp and is most often used in laptop computers and digital cameras. Common capacities for flash drives and memory cards range from 8 to 256GB.

A gigabyte (GB) of storage can hold thousands of files, but you’ll be amazed by how quickly you can fill that space.

External hard drive:This type of drive has a much higher capacity than a flash drive, making it ideal for backing up all your files — the best insurance. Affordable external hard drives range from 500GB to 3TB.

A terabyte (TB) of storage is equal to a thousand gigabytes, which should be enough room to back up everything on your computer.

Network drive:If your computer connects to a home network, you may be able to copy files to other devices on the network. For example, you can use a large-capacity network drive to back up files from more than one computer.

OneDrive:Your Microsoft Account comes with 5 gigabytes of free storage in the cloud (which means on the Internet). Anything stored in OneDrive is duplicated on additional computers you log in to with the same Microsoft Account.

OneDrive provides storage but not a backup (duplicate). If you delete a file from OneDrive, any copies stored on linked computers are also deleted.

In this chapter, you copy files to a flash drive and hard drive so that you can transport files between machines and back up your files. You also find out how to store files in the Microsoft cloud with OneDrive. As well, you use the Backup function, which automatically copies files as a backup. Consider this scenario: You write a letter to a friend and save it to your Documents folder. Later that day, you delete part of the letter and save it again, replacing the original document. The next day, you wish you still had the deleted text. The Backup function comes to your rescue because it saves versions of files; you can recover the latest version or an earlier version of a file. As we wrote this book, we saved it hundreds of times — the Backup function could save every version, allowing us to roll back to an earlier copy, to before we had made some big goof. (That’s purely hypothetical, of course.)

Finally, in this chapter, you explore the Reset function, a tool you may need if you have problems with your computer. The Reset function reinstalls Windows 11 but preserves your personal data.

Add an External Hard Drive or Flash Drive

Before you attach a flash drive or hard drive to your computer, consider the following options that Windows 11 automatically offers for using the newly attached drive:

Configure Storage Settingsopens the Settings app so that you can configure the storage settings on your computer.

Open Folder to View Filesdisplays the contents of the disk in File Explorer on the desktop. You select this option to copy files to or from the drive you’re attaching.

Take No Actiondismisses the notification.

Notifications appear for the amount of time specified in PC Settings. If the notification disappears before you can select it, you can redisplay it by removing and then reinserting the drive or USB cable.

Locate an unused USB port on your computer. A USB port is a small rectangular slot on the front or back of a desktop computer or along any edge of a laptop or tablet computer. USB ports are often marked with a symbol that looks like a trident, as shown in Figure 16-1.

If a USB port is hard to reach, you can buy an extension cable from any office supply store. You can also buy a hub, which adds ports to your computer.

If you’re using a flash drive, insert it into the USB slot. USB fits one way only. If you’re using an external hard drive, plug it into a power source, if one is required, and then connect a cable to the USB port. Turn on the external drive, if it has a separate power switch. (Flash drives and some external hard drives don’t have separate power supplies or switches.)

Windows 11 displays a notification to Choose what to do with removable drives . (You can click the mouse instead of tapping.) If you select the first notification, a list of choices appears, such as Open folder to view files . If you know which action you want to take, you can select that action. Otherwise, select Take No Action or wait until the notification disappears on its own.

FIGURE 16-1

Copy Files to or from a Flash Drive

To copy files or folders to a flash drive, insert the flash drive into one of your computer’s USB ports.

Laptops, like cameras, often have a slot for a memory card. Want to turn your memory card into a flash drive? Simply buy a device called a dedicated or single-purpose memory card reader. Strictly speaking, a multipurpose card reader also works, but multicard readers cost more and are often larger than single-card readers. In addition, a dedicated memory card reader doesn’t need a cable to connect a camera to a computer. You can just download your pictures to your hard drive from the card.

If Windows 11 displays a notification, when you insert the flash drive or memory card, select Open Folder to View Files, which will open File Explorer on the desktop. If File Explorer doesn’t open automatically, go to the desktop and then select the yellow folder icon in the taskbar to open File Explorer.

The keyboard shortcut to open File Explorer is    + E.

In File Explorer, navigate on the left to the folder that contains the files you want to copy. See Chapter 15 for information on navigating in File Explorer. Select the folder.

On the right side of File Explorer, select the folder or file you want to copy. If you see a check box to the left of each object you want to copy, you can select each check box to copy multiple files simultaneously. (If you don’t see check boxes next to files, see Chapter 15 for information on enabling this function for file selection.)