I have an external hard drive that I want to use as a back up to my computer hard drive. I know that you can set your computer to back up all your files on a scheduled basis to another hard drive. Does anyone know how?

There are a couple of FREE options depending on what operating system you are running.

On a Mac (Leopard) - All you need to do is connect the external drive and it will ask if you want to use it as a backup device. This will enable it to constantly update your files as you change them.

On a PC (Windows) - There is a neat utility called "Backup" (very original name) that has been around for a while. You can find it by clicking Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Backup. You can use the Wizard to make a quick and easy backup of your files or you can use "Advanced Mode" to get in depth. One neat thing that you can do with this is have a scheduled backup. So you can set it to do an incremental backup (only backup anything that changed after your previous full backup) every midnight.

Hope that helps!

Followed the advice and found "Backup" on my PC. Set it up for once a week backup. Question: my new PC has both a C and D drive. I'm only really using the C drive. How do I set up that "backup" to have the backup go on the D drive?

In the wizard, you can choose the location of the backup. By default it is your C: drive, but you can change it. If you are not using the wizard, it is pretty much the same process.

Having two hard drives inside of your computer is great for backing up and retrieving files that you accidentally delete. This does not help though if there is a power surge which can damage all internal components of your computer. The only way to have a safe backup that is not affected by this is to have an external drive that you disconnect from your computer after it is finished with the backup.