A computer hard drive failure could wipe out all your family tree files, photos and documents in an instant, so it's essential to back up your files regularly.

A flash drive is handy for saving a few important files, but it's not practical for a large-scale backup. Burning CDs or DVDs is a good way to back up photos, videos and other files that don't change. Copying your files to an external hard drive is fast, easy and relatively inexpensive. But if you keep your backup at the same location as your computer, the backups could be lost along with the originals in a fire, natural disaster or theft.