My PC Operating System is Windows 7. I need to do system recovery. But, I want to manually back up all data first. I do not know which folder contains all important date. I clicked on the Start and saw User Name, Documents, Pictures, Music, Games, Computer, Control Panel and so on. Is it correct that the User Name has all important data and I need to right click and copy it and then past it to an external hard drive or I should copy and past Documents, Music and Games one by one? I am talking about manually back up data in Windows 7. Thank you for your answer.

First things first, Programs cannot be backed up only data. Your programs will have to be reinstalled from disk again.

The User folder in the root is the most important [C:\Users] and stores all your document, pics, music, desktop items...

Most software developers are smart and use the folder above for data storage, as do most games like EA. Unfortunately some do not use the User folder so you must make sure what program's data you want saved. And where the storage folder is located.

For example MS Outllook 2007 and older store their data files in a folder called application data that is a hidden folder and so forth... MS Outlook 2010 the data files are stored in my documents for easy backup.


Hope this helps,
Grant

By default most programs store data in the My Documents folder, which is a subfolder of the User folder. But that doesn't mean that all programs do or that you can't choose a different location for your data.

Also, you can back up programs but only by creating a full clone of your drive. And then restoring that to a blank drive.

I saw my PC data root is Library (subfolder is Documents, Music, Picture and Video), Homegroup, User (my name), MyComputer, Local Disk(C) and so on. If I want to manually backup all files, I should right click on the User and then copy and past to the external hard drive. Is it correct? Thank you for your help.

Yes...

But be careful, there are 2 locations were Docs/Music/Pics and Videos are kept.

-One is My Documents accessed via My Computer C:\
C:\Users\**YourUserName**\

-The other is in your Libraries accessed via clicking on the Start Menu shortcuts:
c:\Users\**YourUSER**\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Wi ndows\Libraries\

Make sure both locations have been copied.


I have a couple of times only copied the main one only to find a customer return missing documents.

Actually Grant, both those locations point at the same physical place on the disc.
Anything in appdata is a virtual location, shortcut or user settings.
Libraries are simply a set of folder shortcuts that have been grouped together.

Hi Curlyben! It is interesting. Do you mean copy and past the User folder has the same effect as do the Libraries folder or I have to copy both folders?

No.
The actual data is contained in the various folders in the user directory
The appdata/library simply contains shortcuts.

For example on my local machine.

Size of data in libraries- 7.63 GB
Size of appdata/libraries- 28 KB

If you look at the properties of each library component it will show you the actual data path.
So documents points to C:\Users\>USERNAME<\documents (default value)