How To Backup

By Sandy Berger

Many of the letters that I have received are questions concerning lost data files. Once data is lost, it is difficult to recover. Having a good backup provides you with an important safety net.

Why You Need a Backup

The hard disk is the main storage medium in personal computers. Unfortunately, hard disks do sometimes fail, or in computer lingo, crash. When a hard disk crashes, all of your data is in jeopardy. Sometimes information can be retrieved after a crash, but it is usually an aggravating, time-consuming procedure that may end in despair.

To backup your files simply means copying files to a second medium as a precaution in case the first medium fails. The medium used to make the copy can be any of a number of different storage choices including floppy disks, hard disks, Zip disks, CDs, or tapes.

Backup a Few Quick Files

The floppy disk is a dying medium. Some computers like the iMac don't even come with a floppy disk. Yet, right now more than 90% of personal computers still have a floppy drive, and it is an easy way to backup a single file or a small set of files. Any important file can be copied to a floppy disk for backup purposes. If you happen to be working on an important document, you can quickly insert a floppy disk and copy the document to the floppy to ensure that loss of power, hard disk crash, or another unexpected calamity won't leave you unprepared.

Programs with Built-in Backups

Some programs, such as Quicken, have an icon that you can click or a menu choice to backup your data files. You will often have the choice of saving the files to a floppy disk or other medium that you have available. This type of backup only makes a copy of your data. It will not make a copy of the program itself. These built-in backups are very useful, especially for financial and other important files.

Backup Medium

The first thing that you must decide is what kind of medium to use to backup your data. While the good old floppy disk is adequate for copying a few files, floppies do not hold much data. Even if you backup individual files as you use them, it is good to occasionally backup all of your files. If you do a complete backup of your hard disk, you will be able to reconstruct the entire disk and/or restore any individual program or file.

A complete backup requires a medium that can handle a large amount of data. The tape drive is the tried-and-true backup medium, but it is slow and cumbersome to use. Recordable and/or rewritable CD-ROM drives, which have recently become affordable, are now one of the best backup mediums. Recordable CD-ROMs can only write a CD once. Rewritable CD-ROMs can write a CD, erase it, and rewrite on it again. Most writable CD-ROM devices come with software that helps you backup your data.

Online Backup Services

Another option currently available is an online data backup, like Connected Online Backup. These subscription-based backup services allow you to schedule backups whenever you like. All you have to do is choose what you want to backup and how often and leave your computer on. Your computer will connect at whatever time you choose and backup your files to the Web service's computers. A monthly fee is charged based on the amount of data you want to backup. Obviously, you will want to make sure that the company you use for this kind of service is very good. You are putting your data in their hands, so make sure that they are using secure servers and encrypting (coding) the data so that your data cannot be accessed by anyone else.

What to Backup

Your hard drive holds three things: the operating system, applications or programs, and data. The operating system is Windows or the Mac operating system. Although you may lose some settings that may have been customized, in general the operating system can be restored from the original CD that came with your computer. Your programs, again, minus some settings can also be restored from their original CDs. Your data includes all of the files and documents that you create, the e-mail that you send and receive, the favorites and/or bookmarks that you use in your browser, your Internet settings, and all of the photos, graphics, and other files stored on your computer.

Don't underestimate the importance of your data. I had a client who lost all the information in her family tree because she hadn't backed up the file. She didn't think that it was a very important file until she realized she had been working on her family history for three years. It will probably take her that long to reconstruct the information.

Obviously, there are many important things to backup. Unfortunately, Windows does not make this easy. Window 95/98 keeps all of your documents in a folder called My Documents, but your Internet settings, favorites, and other important data is scattered throughout the Windows directory. (Microsoft groups all of these files together in Windows 2000, but since Win 2000 is made for businesses, most home users cannot take advantage of this feature.) To make matters worse, many programs don't use the My Document folder, so even documents files that you create may be spread about your hard disk. If you can find all your documents and settings, you can back them up individually, but the easiest way to be sure that you copy them all is to do a complete backup of your hard disk.

Tips for Backing Up:

1. Test your backups. Make sure that the tape or disk actually contains the files you think they do. Test your backup by trying to restore a file or two.
2. Rotate your medium. Keep four or five disks, tapes, or sets of disks or tapes for your backups. Rotate them, using them in succession each time you backup.
3. Remember that a disk or tape can wear out after many uses. After a few months or a year, (depending on how much you use it) you might want to replace the disks or tapes that you are using with new ones.
4. Proper labeling is also an important part of backing up. Be sure to label your tape or disk with the date and contents.
5. Keep all of your program disks together so you can find them when you need them.
6. If you backup only your data, you'll have to reinstall all your applications in the case of a hard disk crash. If you have a Zip, Jaz, or CD-R/RW drive, create a disk to hold all the files, patches, updates, and other things you download. This will make reinstalling your applications much easier.
7. Keep your backups in a safe place. If you consider your data extremely important, you should keep a copy offsite, in a safe deposit box, or another location protected from theft or fire. When you make two sets of backup data and keep an extra set in another location, you minimize the chance of data loss.

Backing up your data makes good sense. It's like buying an insurance policy. You hope you will never need it, but when disaster strikes, that backup will be your most appreciated forethought.