Lost Something?
By Jon Kenton
“I recently experienced a real computer catastrophe. I am not sure what exactly caused it—possibly a thunderstorm—but my PC crashed in a really bad way. I got a new system, which is great, but I ended up losing most of my files, as they could not be recovered from the old disk. How do I stop this from happening again?”
I heard this sorry tale from a friend of mine a few weeks ago. I answered, “What about your backups?” “What backups?” he responded, with a nasty glare.
Does that story resonate within you? The most important thing about backing up is that you must actually do it. Whatever scheme you end up choosing, make sure you create a schedule and stick to it. Write it in your calendar, put sticky notes on your monitor—whatever works—but do make those backups. There are numerous options to consider—the amount of data, cost, convenience, complexity, and portability. There is also the issue of software, such as various backup packages. In this article, I am going to focus on where to store it safely. I prefer to use a KISS (Keep It Seriously Simple) approach: create a copy of your valuable data files, documents, and media somewhere other than your primary storage, so that whatever could damage the primary storage won’t do the same to the backup.
If you don’t have that much data, and need portability, then using CDs, DVDs, or flash drives would work. CDs have a max capacity of 800MB, and regular DVDs are just less than 5GB. If your drive has the capability to do double layered and double sided, the DVD capacity can be as much as 17GB. Blank CDs and DVDs are relatively cheap, and you can match the capacities to your needs. For the best portability, flash drives work well and are available with capacities as high as 8GB. The size and portability benefits come at a higher price and don’t necessarily meet the requirements for longer-term storage.
The fastest, largest-capacity, and best dollar-per-MB option would be using another hard drive. There are multiple ways to utilize a secondary hard disk for backup storage. All allow you simply to copy the files or directories you want to back up or archive to the second drive, and are all instantly accessible. Here are some of the options, pros, and cons:
1. Add another internal drive to your system. Speedy and simple, but can’t be removed. If your system does crash, there is a chance that both disks will be damaged.
2. Use an external drive. This option is a hard drive in a small external, independently powered unit that connects via USB. There is no need to take the skins off your system; the unit is simply “plug and play.” You can either leave it permanently connected (may have pitfalls similar to option one) or just attach it when you want to backup or restore files. It also has the benefit of being able to be stored away safely, and can be connected to any other system if required.
3. Network attached drives are rather more complex, but do afford flexibility for multiple computers on a home network. With such setups, you can share your storage across your workgroup (not too difficult to configure). You may then back up system A on system B, and vice versa. There are products available that let you add storage as an independent unit on your wireless network. This option offers great flexibility but can be more complex to set up, and if your network has problems, you can’t access the storage.
4. All of these options can be configured with removable hard drives. Drive units can be taken out and stored in a safe place. This option is more expensive, but you can isolate the physical unit and the data it contains. Caution: store the unit away from the main unit. If you remove the drive and leave it next to the system, and you have a fire in your home, the backup will also be lost.
If you are serious about your backup requirements, you can subscribe to a third-party service. Many businesses do this. This option is the most costly, requiring monthly subscription fees, but is typically the most secure. Data is archived offsite (anything that happens to your system or location won’t affect your data) and the companies offer backups of your backups. Search the Web for “online backups” and you will find numerous options.
No matter which of these options you may choose, it is most important to develop a process to follow regularly: identify the data you want to protect, create a series of folders on your backup media, name and date them appropriately, decide on the frequency of backup you need, and finally make sure you actually create the backup copies. Remember KISS: there is no backup process in the world that will protect your data unless you use it. The three golden rules for protecting data are make backups, make backups, and make backups !