Why To Backup & How To Backup Your Data

Most users rarely if ever realize the importance of backing up their data until they run into an issue where their data is at risk of being lost. These situations can take anywhere from days to years and usually they arrive at the most inopportune time. These days, most people live extremely digital lives and rely heavily on their computers. We store valuable information on our computers and no where really anywhere else. Recovering from a data loss can be almost soul draining these days if we're too reliant on our computers hard drive as the only storage point. Don't believe me?

Imagine right now, while reading this page, that you're computer just turns off and will not turn on. Go buy a new one. Problem solved right? What about the last 4+ years of pictures stored in "My Pictures" folder? Pictures of your kids, the pets, maybe some work photos... Gone. What about all your e-mail in Outlook Express, Outlook, Windows Live Mail, etc.? Your contacts? Do you have your Quickooks, Quicken, TaxCut data saved? What about all your School, Work, or Personal Documents? Doh! Are you starting to see the picture? Data loss can be very frustrating if you lose enough. Don't worry. You've heard about Data Recovery software companies or Software Data Recovery right? Can they help you? Keep reading.

There are companies who can recover your data. You send off your hard drive, and assuming that the disks inside the drive haven't been scratched up from a loose part inside, they take apart the hard drive in a "Clean Room" and put the disk into another case and can recover your data. You better hold onto your wallet though. They KNOW you want your data, and you're going to pay for it.I've seen it range from $500 to well over $3,000.00 for data recovery. IF your data is this valuable, I recommend you use the best. As technology changes all the time, please Contact us to find out who we recommend right now and even if this type of data recovery is necessary.

The simpler solution of course is to minimize data loss as best as you can. It's not as expensive as you'd think and there are a variety of ways to backup your files. The cost is directly related to how much data you have to backup, how often you want to backup, and how many backups you want to keep as reference to dates. Why would anyone need more than one backup? In some environments, files get deleted or corrupted in some fashion and it goes unnoticed for months before this file(s) is needed. If you have a few months of backups stored, you can go back in time to find a time when the file wasn't corrupted.

Something else that can almost be considered a myth is that if your computer is new with plenty of space, there's no reason to backup. I have seen countless hard drive failures in my career. Many of these were new hard drives and computers. Please keep your data that's important to you backed up regardless of your hard drives age, manufacturer, model, and size.

My recommended solution is getting an External HardDrive. Some of these have decent software on them that you can use for free. If they do not have software on them, I recommend Handy Backup Standard for a simple backup solution. This software will allow you to backup to a variety of media including: CD, DVD, Flash Drives, External Hard Drives, and FTP.

Once you get a method of backing up, there's a couple things that you should know about backups. 1. While you can backup your programs, it's really a waste of space. When you install applications, they put files in a variety of directories and not just in the program files directory. Then, they point to all these files in the Windows Registry. So, unless you get ALL this information, it's really a waste. You can re-install the program, but you can't just re-install data files that YOU create. 2. Try not to duplicate your data on your hard drive. Saving multiple copies of pictures, documents, etc. is a waste of space and really doesn't do you any good in a case of hardware failure. Also, you'll have the same files in 2 physical locations and 4 logical locations.

Things you should backup: You will usually be SAFE backing up your entire profile found in Documents and Settings or Users (in newer operating systems). It's a lot of wasted file space due to a lot of unnecessary settings and things you'll backup, but that should get most of your data. If you use Kodak Easy share, you'll want to find where the pictures are stored and back them up as well. Backup your financial data. Most of these programs, will have a built in backup utility to use. When it asks for a location, give it your external hard drive (I can't reall tell you what drive letter this will be as it varies from computer to computer). If you use something like Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail or another web based e-mail, you don't have to worry about backing that up on your computer (It is wise to download the mail every now and then because they have been known to lose peoples e-mails from time to time).

I covered a lot in this article so I hope it's not too overwhelming. Remember, with Handy Backup, you can schedule your backups to be daily, weekly, monthly or whenever you like after you've chosen what to backup (It actually has something built in to help you figure that out). Also, backup the really important things to a Flash Drive (it's like 12 bucks at Walmart for a 4GB flash drive). Do this regularly to insure that you don't lose what's important to you.

If you need assistance finding the backup solution that's right for you, please contact us!

Happy Computing!

Dr. James Oliver, Computer Physician