Backing up your PC is one of those jobs, like checking smoke alarms, or making sure your spare tire is pumped up and puncture-free, that many of us continually put off. However, should disaster strike, we'd be pleased that we took the time to do it.

Now on version 6, Roxio's Backup My PC Deluxe is designed to make protecting your data much less of a chore. The latest edition includes even more features to make backing up as simple as possible, with wizards to hold your hand in all four main parts of the software.

The Backup Wizard, in particular, makes things easier for first time users. This guides you through choosing whether to back up your entire hard drive or just selected files and folders and then deciding if you want to continually back up everything or just the files that have changed since last time.

Files can be archived to a range of media including CD, DVD and external hard drives. If and when you need to recover any of your data, the Restore Wizard takes you through the entire process.

Also new in version 6 is Automatic Data Protection. The package lets you schedule automated backups, saving time and trouble, without the need to even know whether you require a full, incremental or differential backup.

Finally, there's the option to create a Disaster Recovery plan for your machine. This lets you build a set of tools to recover your entire system should it fail to boot into the OS.