Back Up Techniques

It is estimated that less than ten percent of all users back up their personal data. Many a tear is shed when a hard drive crashes and data is lost. The average life span of a hard drive is only two years; many drives will last much longer but is it really worth the risk...? Think about all that data loss, and schedule some time weekly to back up.

The first task is to identify ALL the data that needs to be backed up. The most obvious is all your personal data such as documents, music, photographs, address books, emails, and bookmarks. The operating system and programs can be reloaded after a hard drive failure but your personal settings will be lost. As you have usually spent hours setting up the computer just to your liking, it may be well worth doing a comprehensive (full) hard drive back up.

Storing your backed up data in the same area as your PC is OK but if this data is really important to you think about storing it off site. This way you are covered in case of fire, flooding et cetera.

CD and DVD Backup

For most of us this is probably the easiest and best solution. Most computers now come with a CD and DVD burner. If you have a lot of data a DVD burner will be better. You can get CD's or DVD's that you can use over again. Look for CD-rewrite or DVD-rewrite if you are worried about the environmental impact of all those disks.

Flash Drive

Memory sticks are great way to take data from one location to another. However, due to a limited number or write/erase cycles you should not use these drives as a primary back up solution.

Second Hard Drive

A second hard drive is a good solution if you have a lot of data or if you wish to create a full back-up of your hard drive including the operating system and programs that you have installed. External hard drives often come with a software back-up program that can automate the procedure for you. If you have two internal hard drives think about removing the second one from your computer and buying a casing for it so that it becomes an external hard drive. This way you can easily store it off site. If you are going to purchase an external hard drive make sure you have a firewire connection, if you aren't sure, buy an external hard drive that has a USB connection to your computer. Also make sure that it will have sufficient capacity. At a minimum it should be the same size as your internal hard drive.

Online Backups

One solution that appears to address a lot of the requirements of successful backups including off-site storage, capacity, and automated scheduling is online backup. The downside is that backup will be slow, even over broadband, if you have a lot of data. The plus side is that you have access to your data from any computer, so if you travel a lot this may well be worth considering.

 

There are a variety of applications out there to help you perform your backups; some come bundled with your backup hardware, others are available as stand alone products.

Software bundled

If you have a CD or DVD burner you will have a program such as Nero on your computer that can help you burn all your data to disk. Sometimes these programs also have a backup feature.

Drive Image Creation Software

Image creation software, such as Norton Ghost, can be an excellent tool for performing comprehensive or full backups. Image creation applications take a snapshot of your entire hard drive and save it as an image file. The image file can then be transferred to another hard drive, a backup tape, or a CD-R disk. Then, if something goes wrong with your system, you can restore it to its exact state from the drive image.

Operating System Backup Alternatives

Windows (starting with Win 98) Linux and Mac all have backup software utilities. Have a look at your operating system and let it do the work for you...