It's very easy to back up the savegame files for Virtual Families. NOTE: This procedure assumes that you are familiar with creating folders and copying files on your computer. If you are uncomfortable with such tasks, you should seek assistance from an experienced person in order to avoid the possibility of irreparable damage. To back up your games, follow these steps:

• Pause the game in each game slot that you are using
• Quit the game
• For Windows, open My Documents, then open the folder named LDW.
  For Mac, navigate to ~user/Library/Preferences/LDW.
• Look for and open the Virtual Families folder (the actual name may vary, depending upon where you purchased the game). Do not attempt to open the actual savegame files to prevent the possibility of corrupting them.
• The savegame files are named Virtual Families1.ldw through Virtual Families5.ldw, and correspond to each of the savegame slots (1 at the top and 5 at the bottom), and there is a settings file named Virtual Families0.ldw. There is also a backup of each savegame file named Virtual Families21.ldw through Virtual Families25.ldw. (If you have not previously made a backup of your game(s) and your primary savegame file becomes corrupted, you can move or delete the corrupted file and rename the backup file to see if it will load correctly. e.g. if your game in slot 1 becomes unplayable, you can try renaming Virtual Families21.ldw to Virtual Families1.ldw).
  Select all of the files in that folder and copy them to another folder of your choosing. You can even make a sub-folder in the Virtual Families folder, call it "Backup" and copy the files into it
• Verify that the files are in the Virtual Families folder and the location that you copied them to
• You're done, and have a safe backup of your games.

If you ever need to restore one or more of the games, just choose the appropriate savegame file(s) from your backup folder and copy them back into the Virtual Families folder (in My Documents\LDW or ~user/Library/Preferences/LDW).