[SuemacWalker]

Sorry for the basic questions, but I have had a message saying that the hard drive is about to fail and I need to back up documents, photos etc. Is there a quick way to do this? Should I buy a portable hard disk and, if so, is there an easy way to transfer my files? I live in Spain, so anything I buy may only have instructions in Spanish (though usually several languages are given) and I really don't want to lose everything. I have started transferring individual files to a USB, but this is time-consuming and I don't want to risk missing something! Presumably as I have a monitor and keyboard I can get away with buying a new hard disk or, as the PC is nearly 5 years´old, am I better buying a totally new set-up?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Masterchiefxx17]

Hi and welcome to TSF!

You have started doing the correct thing on transferring your most important files over on USB.

As for the HDD, I would recommend buying a new Western Digital or Seagate HDD. Then use Windows backup and restore to move the new drive over.

 

[spunk.funk]

I have started transferring individual files to a USB

By USB I assume you mean a USB Flash Drive? These devices are great for transferring files from one computer to another, but are not good to be the only backup device.
As Masterchief said, You should get a USB external HDD and Drag and Drop/Copy and Paste all of your user files under C:\Documents and Settings to it. Do not backup programs.
The other option is to clone your whole computer C: drive to another HDD. Then swap the drives around. If the computer boots with the cloned drive, then you are good to go. You can use the free Acronis for WD drives or DiskWizard for a Seagate drive.