
This will take longer, and you'll probably need a second hard drive to hold the image, but if disaster does strike in the future then you'll appreciate the difference. Use Macrium Reflect - Free Edition, though, and the program will take a complete image of your entire hard drive. Running a simple file-based backup, for instance, will be quick, but only because you'll probably leave so much behind: emails, contacts, browser favourites, digital photos, music, fonts, Windows and application settings, Office add-ons, browser extensions - the list goes on.

Backing up your PC occasionally is a very good idea: there's no better way to protect your valuable files from hardware failure, virus attack and other data disasters.
