Getting Started

Why Backup

To back-up is to make spare copies of files and store them separately to the originals. Backing up files is a very important part of maintaining a PC and can save a lot of hassle if ever the PC has a problem. This does not take much time, as it is easy to put your files onto another medium, is not too expensive but depends on what medium you choose to use to backup your data. There are many different options for data backup, and you will have to choose the one that is best for you.

As we all know computers have a tendency to go wrong from time to time and even though these days total hard drive failure is rare it does happen. There are various reasons why computers fail - one of the more common problems nowadays is the threat from viruses the other being operating system failure and last but not least bad software installation. These things can cause problems when it comes to recovering files.

Backups are no longer a choice but a necessity, and everyone is responsible for making backups of their files.

Backup Location

There are situations when a backup might also be accidentally corrupted or over-written. Regularly creating a third backup or a remote backup that is stored in a different location provides greater security against losing your data. This however will need to be done frequently and on a regular basis in order to keep the backup relevant and updated.

What Data needs to be backed up?

Data backup is easy to do and can save great amounts of time as well as ensure that your data is secure in the case of disaster. On the other hand data recovery is a very difficult, time consuming and expensive process, and it is not even assured that you will be able to recover your data from a system crash.

You can back up your pictures, videos, music, Office documents, spreadsheets, databases, bookmarks, emails etc anything that you value on your PC. You should keep a copy of all the programs that you use so that if necessary they may be easily reinstalled at a later date.

If you use your computer for business purposes you will also need to backup all the information from your financial software, inventory control, customer databases, and other specialist business files that you use

How often should you backup?

How frequently you back up will depend on how often you use your PC and what you use it for. The average home user will probably just have to back up any important files as and when they are changed and do a full back-up once a week/month (depending on PC use).

When PCs are used in a home office scenario then backing up should be done more frequently. One rule of thumb would be if your important files change daily, back-up daily, if they change weekly, back-up weekly, and so on. If you work on your documents each day, you need to backup at least once a day. If you accidentally delete a file, or a program crashes while you're working on a document, you need to be in a position where you can click a button to recover that file from your backup copy, so you may well want to run the backup program in the background.

It's very easy to have your important files backed up without you having to remember to do so. The backup programs can be set up to run automatically every day at a certain time. Computers are designed to help automate tasks and doing a regular backup is one of them.

Backup Media

There are many different types of media that you may choose to backup onto, and each has their own advantages and disadvantages. The first thing you'll have to work out is what suits your particular circumstance.

A backup that can automatically run without your intervention will save you a great deal of time over the long run. If you're a personal computer user the most immediate medium you're probably going to consider is to backup to CDR/W or DVDR/W, however these mediums are also less stable over longer periods of time than you might realize.

Whatever you choose make sure your chosen media is easy to use, requires as little intervention as possible, and can easily be scheduled.

CD Writers

New technologies and more affordable prices are making the CD Writers ideal for making large amounts of data back-ups. These are all very powerful tools which can hold up to 800Mb of data. CD-RW or DVD-RW therefore is an excellent way to backup your data and it’s also very easy to use, the software that comes with them is normally very straight forward and can create back-ups in minutes.

ZIP Drives

Zip drives are still a popular media for backing up data, both internal and external ZIP drives are available and some models can store up to around 750MB of data. These drives normally come with their own special software which is usually very simple to use.

Online Data Backup

A more advanced form of data backup is online data backup this includes:

• storing all the data on a secure remote server
• users can download the data whenever required
• Data loss due to hard drive crash, power failure, virus attacks, etc is removed
• With the availability of better broadband facilities resorting to online data backup is fast and easy.
• Ongoing costs are limited to paying for the broadband usage and monthly rental for the remote server.
• Safety of online backup systems is gauranteed. Online backup servers are located in high security building, complete with power backup, secured data coverage by firewalls

There are different ways to ensure safety for your data. Investing in data backup system is worth ten times data recovery from failed hard drive.