Our previous BlackBerry tips of week included list of our favorite BlackBerry downloads--free, open source and otherwise--keyboard shortcuts for both novice and expert BlackBerry users and battery life advice, as well as tips and tricks to help you understand and optimize--even expand--your RIM smartphone's memory. This week we'll demonstrate how you can protect the valuable data on your BlackBerry by backing it up on your PC's hard drive--we'll even show you how to automatically backup your device data in preset intervals.

To get started, all you'll need is your BlackBerry device, the latest version of RIM's BlackBerry Desktop Manager, a Microsoft Windows PC--the desktop software's not currently available to Mac users--and a USB cable to link your mobile phone and computer.

1) Download the Latest Version of RIM's BlackBerry Desktop Manager

First, you'll want to download the latest version of RIM's BlackBerry Desktop Manager software, which at the time of this article's time of publication is v4.5. To determine which version of Desktop Manager you're currently running, launch the program via Windows Start Menu by clicking All Programs, BlackBerry and Desktop Manager. When the program's open, hit the Help tab on the main screen and then choose About BlackBerry Desktop Manager. The software version will be listed on the General tab.

If you're not running Desktop Manager v4.5, visit RIM's site and download and install the latest version of the software.