How do I perform a backup?

get the external HDD connected then power ON the PC.Take the cursor ,& just click start, then programs, click accessories, then click system tools, right there u will see Back up, click on it and follow the on-screen display!

Cheers!

You can. Personally all I do is take everything that I download, stick it in a folder (or 2) and burn it to a CD (or 2). But there are products out there that will work even better. Norton Ghost is one of them. It basically takes a snapshot of your PC and if the system crashes, reinstall windows and use the ghost file to restore the PC to a time before it crashed. Yes, an external HDD will work for this.

You can back up your system. First, hook up your external hard drive. Once that is connected, you can click on "Start". Then "All Programs". Then "Accessories". Then "System Tools" and finally "Backup". If you do not see backup there, you can click on "Start" and then "Run" and type in "NTBackup" and press enter. Just run through the wizard and you should be all set.

Good Luck

you could have bought a larger internal HHD , the same price as the 250 GB external. and it will save you the effort

You dont need to do that you are to small..If you had a CD burner you could burn all of your info and save for any problems that me come up...YOU can do it now if you just want to do it but I would not do it unless you have heavy traffic on your computer kids and all....

load it up with your software, should have it for backup whole system.