by 
The Curious Bag
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Losing data from your computer due to a systems crash or virus can be frustrating, time consuming and even expensive. Fortunately, some computer programs protect you from data loss, sometimes with the use of .bak files.
Identification
A file with the .bak file extension is known as a backup file. A large number of programs utilize .bak files.
Function
A .bak file contains a copy of a document, program or data. These files are often generated automatically by the program.
Specific Types
Windows makes backups of important settings that are used to start up your computer, load settings or access programs, while the web browser Firefox uses backup files to make copies of your bookmarks or websites saved to your "Favorites."
Use
Some people choose to save .bak files in a location off their hard drive, such as on a CD or DVD or on an external hard drive or zip disk, so that the files do not become affected if there is a virus or system crash that affects their computer.
Considerations
In some cases, you must remove the .bak file extension for the file to be accessed. This is done simply by clicking on the file name with the mouse and deleting the series of characters and the period.
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