Basic File Backup

Find your user folder on the computer.
1. Windows
  1. Go to This PC (called Computer or My Computer in some versions of Windows)
  2. Open the C: drive
  3. Open the Users folder
  4. Open the folder for your user
2. Mac
  1. Open Finder
  2. Go to Go > Computer
  3. Open your hard drive
  4. Open the Users folder
  5. Open the folder for your user
Select the following folders from your user folder. You can skip any of the folders that you are not using.
1. Windows (press the Ctrl key on your keyboard while clicking folders to select multiple folders at once)
  1. Desktop
  2. Documents
  3. Downloads
  4. Favorites
  5. Music
  6. Pictures
  7. Videos
2. Mac (press the Shift key on your keyboard while clicking folders to select multiple folders at once)
  1. Desktop
  2. Documents
  3. Downloads
  4. Movies
  5. Music
  6. Pictures
With the folders selected, right-click (control-click for Mac) one of the selected folders.
Select Copy.
Open your backup location from the computer you will be backing up. If you are backing up to cloud storage, stay in your Users folder.
Add a new folder named with Backup and today's date (example: Backup 8-1-14).
Open your backup folder.
Right-click (control-click for Mac) and select Paste.
Once the file copy has completed, verify that the folders all exist in your backup folder and that they contain data.
If you are backing up to cloud storage, complete these additional steps:
1. Right-click (control-click for Mac) your temporary backup folder inside your Users folder.
2. Select Send to > Compressed File (Compress "folder" for Mac).
3. Go to your cloud storage site.
4. Upload the .zip file from your Users folder to your cloud storage.
5. Verify that the upload completed successfully.
6. Delete your temporary backup file and temporary .zip file from your Users folder.
Delete your previous backup folder from your backup location.