After installing the software, select the destination for the backup, this can be the external drive, select the partition(c drive, d drive etc) or the files that you want to back up. Run the back up process, when the process is finished , place the backup media safely. Create the recovery media. Schedule the process( backup programs have this option) as required for daily, weekly, monthly backups.
Free online backup and storage spaces are available for major mobile platform , like for iPhone- icloud is there, for Android- Google drive and for Windows phone- Skydrives are there, a lot different spaces for the storage. Just we require some respective apps and we can get local copies of our files.
Enjoy,,,