Do it now not tomorrow.The problem is that tomorrow rarely ever comes until you experience a serious system failure and then its too late. Taking the time to backup your data or entire hard disk is not as painstaking as it may seem.And the rewards of doing so will be great should your computer experience a crash. If you have Windows XP operating systemcyou will need to install the new Windows backup utility from the Windows XP CD-ROM.Just place the WinXP CD-ROM in your cdrom drive and locate the line "D:VALEADDMSFTNTBACKUP". Here you see the first letter as "D" but if your optical drive have a different drive letter( E,F,G...),exchange the D with your drive's letter.To install the progrsm utility,click on the file named "NTBackup.msi". The backup software utility will be installed to the system tools group.Click Start,All Programs,Accessories,System Tools,and Backup.There is a wizard that will walk you through the backup process. WinXP's backup utility will backup your entire hard disk and will make a recovery disk to boot. You should back up your entire hard disk when you perform your first backup.After that it is best to perform an Incremental backup.This kind of backup only allow you to backup files that have changed since your last performed backup. Differential Backups copy changed files and data that have been added since you last did your entire backup. This type of backup is more detailed than incremental backups and is easier to restore. You can backup your files on CD-ROM and have the files compressed to save both space and backup time.WinXP operating system will compress folders,subfolders,and files during backup. You can purchase compression software that will do the same saving you cdrom storage space.The compressed files are automatically uncompressed once they are restored unto your hard disk. You can also use a second hard disk as your backup storage device.We use two backup hard disk to be certain. You can either purchase an internal hard disk in install it to your ide cable or you may want to purchase an external hard disk that connects to your Universal Serial Bus or USB Port. The advantage of the external drives is that they have very large amount of storage space,transfer data fast,and can be moved from your computer to any other computer. You may also consider online services for backing up your data. Another advantage of online backups is that you can access,upload,or download your data from any location. It is best to use high speed internet access if you're considering online data storage. Backup your system now in one way or another if you have not done so.If you have critical data that you simply cannot due without,take the time to invest in a backup device or one of the many online backup services. Stop and perform those backups today. You will be thankful you did should something go wrong with your PCr.Its always better to be safe than sorry.