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The most important part of your PC is your data. These are the files you have collected of created yourself - your projects, pictures, accounts, e-mails etc. In the event of a serious system crash, you can usually restore the operating system and programs that you use, but your personal data may be irreplaceable. Although emergency data recovery options are available, these will tend to be expensive and there is no guarantee that everything you want can be restored. A better approach is to start a regular routine of backing up your important data.
Your data should be backed up as often as possible, ideally after every major session on your PC. It isn't necessary to back up your whole hard drive. Identify the folders that hold your important data and only back those folders up. To find out where your files are being stored, use "Save As" instead of just hitting "Save" when you create or update your files, and note the location the program is using to write your data. Add that folder to your backup list.
There are dozens of programs available to help you to make backups. They vary in price but most have the same basic features - you create a list of the files and folders you want to back up and decide whether you want to save the registry entries. You can either backup your files and folders straight away or set the program to perform the backup automatically later. A basic but useable backup program comes with all Windows operating systems. You can find the Microsoft Backup Utility in the Start menu under Accessories > System Tools.
There are three major variations to a backup - Full, Incremental and Differential. In a full backup, everything on your backup list is backed up each and every time. Once a full backup has been made, you can choose to make an incremental backup in which only those files on your list that have changed since the last full or incremental backup will be backed up. To restore from a backup, you apply the full backup and every incremental backup since the full. With the differential backup, all files since the full are stored. Unlike the incremental backup, you typically have to restore only the full and the last differential backup.
Of course there's nothing wrong with simply copying your important documents and files directly to disk using explorer or cd burning software.
Never store your backups on your main hard drive. If you do and your hard drive crashes, your backup files will be lost along with everything else. Ideally, backups of your most important data should not be stored in the same room or even on the same site as the original. Several of the main backup options are described below, listed in the order of their storage capacity. How many copies and what strategy you use depends on how bad a loss of data would affect you.
CD & DVD
Most if not every computer will come with a CD or DVD recorder. This is probably one of the most useful and common means of making data backups. CDs can store typically up to 700MB and DVDs up to 4.7 - 9.4GB per disk. Disks are very cheap nowadays so this is a very sensible option for your backups large or small. Backing up using utility software or dragging and dropping in Windows onto the drive is easy and straightforward.
To keep your backups as compatible as possible it's advisable to use the UDF format rather than the older ISO format. Burning software such as Nero or Ashampoo will offer you the options. Basically UDF is a format which is so standardised that it can be read on a PC as well as a MAC. As mentioned before, disks are so cheap now that it's practical to make more than one copy of your most important data, at a typical cost of 22p per disk cost is not an issue.
Mini USB drive
(Also known as Flash Drive, Pen Drive, Key Drive) This is a small external drive that connects to your computer through a USB port and behaves like a diskette. Currently, they are available in various sizes ranging from a few gigabytes up to 128 gigabytes. USB ports are now standard on modern PCs, so the Mini USB drive is a good way to move files between computers, or to keep a backup copy of a few important files. While the larger capacity drives may make long term backup feasible, the cost per megabyte is high in comparison to other media. Bear in mind that flash drives are volatile media and it would be prudent not to rely on them for important backups. They are ideal for temporary storage or for moving data from one computer to another.
External Hard Drive
Several manufacturers now produce external hard drives that connect via USB, USB2 or FireWire ports with capacities that range from 40GB to 1TB (1,000 GB). Backup software usually comes bundled with the drive. External hard drives are fast and offer the convenience of backing up an entire hard drive in one pass without the need to swap a stack of disks in and out. Currently, an external hard drive is probably the best choice for serious data backup in a home or small business computer system where large storage is required but again you must bear in mind that it's volatile medium that can fail like the hard drives in your system. It's therefore best to make sure a CD or DVD is also used for the important data and regard this solution as one of convenience.
Remember that data you create is the most important of all, anything else can be reloaded if your system goes down. Programs and operating system all came from a disk which you loaded in the first place.
With the increasing popularity of broadband connections, backup of data to an external location on the internet is a viable solution under some circumstances.
Most internet accounts provide free web space that can be used to store file backups. The amount of space provided varies with different ISPs, and a normal account is unlikely to provide enough to deal with hundreds of large media files, but important accounts or correspondence can be copied to a relatively small area of web space. A few precautions may be necessary, however, because of the possibility that your files could be accessed by other people. Personal details and commercially sensitive data definitely should not be backed up to an ordinary web account unless you invest in a robust encryption program such as Steganos or PGP. Internet backups should also be saved to a folder with an index file, so that people browsing your site don't see a list of files that you've copied over.
An alternative to the do-it-yourself web space approach is to use one of the numerous specialist online backup services now available. Typically, these charge between £10 and £20 per month for online stowage space and provide software to deal with your backup scheduling requirements. Some companies offer a free trial period to test their systems and free services are available for limited amounts of data storage.
One possible advantage to using this solution is that your backups can be accessed by your from any computer connected to the internet. This may be useful if you are on the move a lot and want access to your data on different computers or platforms.
Use Windows to back up your data
Online Backup Reviews
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