If you use = Windows Vista, it comes with a straightforward way to backup your files (not the OS) regularly to the HDA.10 =

There is utility to back up Windows 8/10 systems called "File History". Here is a brief tutorial on how to [http://www.howtogeek.com/74623/how-to-use-the-new-file-history-feature-in-windows-8/ use file history to backup]. The key is to use your HDA for backup, for example a backups share called \\hda\backups share. We recommend to lower the "keep my backups" option from Forever to less than that, like 6 months or a year. Otherwise, your storage may get full quickly. = Vista, Windows 7 or 8 = If you use Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8, there is a built-in, straightforward way to backup your files (not the OS) regularly to the HDA. To use it, go to the Backup and restore Center (Start -> Control Panel -> Backup & Restore). In Windows 8, You can launch the backup from the Control panel:

In it, you can configure settings (in "Change settings) to make Vista do backups to your HDA daily, weekly or monthly.  [[Image:VistaBackups2.png|border|500px]] All you have to specify is that you want to backup to the network, e.g. to   \\hda\backups\[machine] Where [machine] is your machine name. The first time it runs it will back up all your files\. Subsequent backupsare incremental: only what changed since last backup is saved.

The first time it will back up all your files. Subsequent backups are incremental[[Image: only what changed since last backup is savedVistaBackups3.png|border]]

It saves your files in the form of zip files, to they are easy to recover, even without using the vista "Restore Files" program. For step-by-step details for Win7 and Win 8, check the [[Image:VistaBackups2.png|border|500pxWin7Backups]]page.