The Basics of Backups

Frrrzat! That’s the sound of your computer dying. Actually, it may sound more like ktick-ktlick-ktick-dzzzt, then stone cold silence. Power it off. Power it back on. Still nothing? Your mood depends on how well you’ve backed up your computer. The term “backup” refers to the practice of creating copies of the information stored on your computer.

A lightning strike might zap it. Or one of those nasty viruses can wipe it clean. Even old age (of your computer, that is) can cause a loss of the hard drive. With some basic protection through routine backups, you can reduce the frustration of losing it all.

What To Save

First, some basics. One school of thought is to copy your entire hard drive. I’m not a big fan of this because you end up creating copies of things that don’t change often or that you can pull from a program’s original CDs. Think of it this way: if your computer’s hard drive vaporized right now, what would you absolutely be lost without tomorrow? Documents, e-mail, photos and music files are perhaps the most common.

If you use Windows XP the way it sets itself up, XP does a good job of saving most of your files in directories or folders under a place called “Documents and Settings.” It’s here that XP sets up your “My Documents” location that shows up on your desktop and in save menus. It’s a good practice, as you might suspect, to then use “My Documents” as a place to save all your work, regardless of the program you use. In fact, Microsoft Office defaults to “My Documents” for saving.

CDs For More Than Music

If you use your computer for checking e-mail, browsing the Web and creating a few Word files, you should be able to back up to a single CD-Recordable (CD-R), a USB Flash Drive, a couple Zip disks, or maybe even a few floppy disks. For simplicity, we’ll assume we’re working with small backup files that can fit on single CD-R.

We’ll go through the process in a minute, but once you create a backup, it’s a good idea to find someplace else to store the copies other than with or next to your computer. Store your backups like you store your financial records (assuming you’re as careful with your records as my wife). Put your backups in a box in the closet, or a file cabinet in the basement, even in your safe deposit box. If you choose to use your own fire safe, make sure you get one that is rated for computer media. The standard fire safes are rated for the burning point of paper only, not for the melting point of computer media.

Making It Easy

You’ll need software to help you organize your backups. For home users, there’s no standard or leader in this category. In fact, to look at the shelves of our local computing superstore, there’s little choice at all. Actually, a good choice is free from Microsoft. It’s easy to use, but you may have to install it first. If you have Windows XP Home, find your original XP CD (you do remember where you put it, right?), then go to VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP and double click NTBackup.msi to install it.

To run NTBackup, go to Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools and select Backup. This utility makes it fairly easy to create a backup and save it most types of media, including CD-Rs, tapes, floppies, USB Flash drives, other hard drives or even Zip disks. And, if you have everything in “Documents & Settings”, there is the option to automatically backup just that info by using the set-up wizard. One downside to this program is that it doesn’t allow you to save to more than one CD-R at a time. That’s only a problem if you have a bunch of stuff to save. We’ll deal with that at a later time.

If you have an Iomega Zip drive, the software that Iomega gives you provides a good back up utility. But it only backs up to the Zip drive and you have to choose the files you want to back up.

How Often?

Backing up is only effective if you get into a regular routine of saving your info. How much information can you stand to lose? A month’s worth? Do a back up when you change your furnace filter. A week’s worth? Take the garbage out, perform a back up. One day? You spend way too much time on your computer; take a walk and then back it up.