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Maintenance and Backup
Summary: Backing up your computer is an important step to avoiding data loss. We'll look at what it is, and give a suggestion for average users.
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How do I "back up" my computer? I am sure my question is ridiculous to you but I honestly have no clue what I should be doing. |
Your question's not ridiculous at all, and in fact I'm certain that one reason so many people don't back up is exactly that: they don't know how.
Let's first look at what it means to back up a computer, what your options are, and then what I typically recommend for average users.
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Backing up is simply making a copy of program files and/or data, and then keeping that copy in a safe place. Nothing more, nothing less.
The goal of a backup is also simple: if something ever happens to your computer such that you can no longer get your information off of it (which happens more often than people realize), then you can always get the information from the backup copies.
Where backing up can start to seem complicated is when you look at all the options relating to how much to back up, how often, and the various tools to make sure that it happens regularly.
Backing up typically takes one of two forms:
Copying your data. This is conceptually very simple. For example, if you copy pictures off of your digital camera, and then immediately burn those pictures to a CD for safe-keeping, you've backed them up. Similarly, if you regularly take the contents of your "My Documents" folder tree and copy it to another machine or burn it to CD, that's one form of backing those files up; they're safely stored in another location in addition to the original.
Imaging your system. This is also conceptually very simple: rather than backing up only this-and-that, hoping that you actually remembered to include everything you might need in case of a disaster, this approach makes a copy of everything; your data, your programs, your settings - even the operating system itself.
Both types of backups share a common characteristic: whatever they backup, be it just certain files and folders or absolutely everything, they do so by a) making a copy, and then b) placing that copy somewhere else.
If your data is in only one place, and there are no copies, then you're not backed up.
So where should "somewhere else" be?
Well, the ideal answer is "as far away from your computer as practical". The further away, the more you are protected from various types of disasters.
So what do you do, Leo?
My needs are rather extreme, but I'll outline them here as an example to spur ideas:
As I said, overkill for most folks, but perhaps it'll help spur some ideas of what might be appropriate for you.
If the backup is on the same hard disk, then if that hard disk dies you could lose your data and your backup.
If the backup is on a different hard disk but inside the same computer, then if something happens to the computer that causes the hard disks to be harmed, you could lose your data and your backup.
If the backup is on an external hard disk but connected to the same computer, then if there's a software glitch on that computer that starts destroying files on all connected devices, you could lose your data and your backup.
If the backup is on a different computer on the same network, then a network problem or virus on your local network could start deleting files and you could lose your data and your backup.
If the backup is burned to a CD or DVD but kept in the same location, or any of the solutions above are all in the same location, then if that location suffers a physical catastrophe such as a fire or flood you could lose your data and your backup.
That's kinda scary stuff, but you get the idea. The closer your backup is to the original data, the greater the possibility that you could lose both at once.
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All that can seem pretty overwhelming, but so far the take-away is simply that backing up is making a copy of your data and storing it in a safe place away from your computer.
The question that remains, then, is just how should we do that? The questions that drive that answer is just how likely are those problems I've talked about, and how important is the data?
The more important the data, the more frequently you'll want to back up, and the more copies of those backups you'll want to keep in various locations. The importance of your data is something that only you can really judge.
By far the most common issue that I see people encountering that causes data loss is hard drive failure. OK, hard drive failure and accidental deletion. In my opinion a great place to start is to protect yourself against at least those.
There are many approaches to backing up, which I've discussed in an earlier article What backup program should I use? Rather then revisit those approaches here, I'll make a simple suggestion.
For most average home users, I suggest:
Getting an external USB hard disk.
Using an automated backup program like Acronis TrueImage or an equivalent, and backing up to the external drive automatically on a daily or weekly schedule.
This won't protect you from everything, like your house burning down, but it will protect from what I see are the most common causes of data loss. If your hard disk dies, you can restore files, and perhaps the entire system, from your backup. If you happen to - oops! - delete a file by accident, then as long as it was there when the most recent backup was take, you can restore it quickly and easily.
There's no general "how to" that I can provide here that would cover all the different backup programs you might try, but the good news is that most come with relatively simple instructions to set up the most common types of backups for average users.
As your needs increase, as you determine that the importance of your data requires stronger measures, then you'll have a good base to build on.
Related:
What backup program should I use? Backing up your computer's data is critical. What program should you use? There are many, but the best is which ever one you actually will use.
Can't I just copy everything instead of using a backup program? It's tempting to just use file copy tools to backup what you think you need. But if you're not careful, you could easily miss something very important.
What's an incremental backup? Backing up is important, but terms like "full", "incremental" and even "differential" can easily confuse. We'll look at what these terms mean.
Article C3541 - October 23, 2008
Also don't overlook the use of USB flash drives. If you can't afford one big enough to contain all of your data, at least back up your 'can't live without' files to it and store it in a locked drawer in your workplace, for example.
Posted by: HandyMan at October 28, 2008 9:53 AMNow that hard disk drives are cheap, it's worth considering setting up 2 drives as a RAID mirrored pair. You'll need a motherboard that supports this sort of drive configuration, but then you have a system with built-in redundancy against failure. Of course, this doesn't prevent the need for regular backups, but if you do get a disk failure it shouldn't mean any computer downtime - just pull out the bad drive and replace it with a good one, and the RAID array should rebuild itself.
29-Oct-2008
There are a few principles to which I adhere for backup:
Posted by: whs at October 28, 2008 11:31 AM1. Backup to an external device (typically a disk, but for small amounts of just data a USB stick may do) that can be disconnected. This is important because malware can attack anything that is running (e.g. Raid)
2. Do it on a regular schedule - I do it once every week with Norton Ghost (Acronis would be another alternative). I backup all my data on Wednesdays and my whole system on Sundays.
3. Keep as many backups as you can fit because problems sometimes manifest themselves late in the game and you may have to go back quite a bit.
Raid for Backup? If your data becomes corrupted and unusable it does so on both drives at the same time. Then what?
Posted by: Frank Walker at October 28, 2008 12:25 PMAcronis True Image has worked well for me to restore data to the same hard drive in the same computer after the data has become corrupted.
I keep a backup on my secondary hard drive and a backup on an external hard drive off site.
I also back up important files to a USB flash drive (and the off site hard disk) as I have never been able to restore a full image archive made with Acronis True Image 10 or 11 to a new hard drive or a new computer. (This occurred at least three times). Acronis customer
service told me to use the Microsoft system preparation tool before migrating my data to a new system. What they didn't do was explain to me how I was to determine when my hard drive would fail so I could follow their procedure.
Perhaps Leo has more information on the difficulties of restoring data to a new hard drive or a new system using Acronis software.
Is it better to "clone" a (bootable) backup copy of my hard drive to my new external HD, or to just do "backup image," which allows compression but is NOT bootable?
Bit of background/context: I recently got an Apricorn 500 GB external HD (USB and/or eSATA), which comes with Apricorn's "EZ Gig II" backup program. Apricorn has gotten very good reviews across a broad spectrum of sources and EZ Gig II can run from "one-button" simple back-ups to fairly elaborate "customized" clone/backup images for the more experienced.
I had pretty much decided to:
• Do an initial full/total system & data "clone image" bootable backup.
• Do periodic (i.e., monthly) partial/updated data backup images.
• Do replacement full/total system & data "clone image" bootable backups annually thereafter.
However ... in the EZ Gig II program, the "Clone Disk" full system/data backup process warns: 'Typical mode is used for hard disk cloning. This mode pre-selects the most common settings to make the cloning process easier. All your partitions from the old hard disk will be copied to the new one in a few simple steps, making your new hard disk bootable. All of your partitions will be automatically resized to fit the new hard disk.
Note: You will have to remove the old hard disk when the cloning process is complete.
Suitable for most users.'
This sounds like if I clone my HD to my external HD I have to remove the original HD? That just doesn't make any sense.
What do you think? Obvious option is to do the original/annual "clone disk" full system/data (bootable) backup to the external HD and then just ignore the instruction to remove the "remove the old hard disk." And then proceed with the monthly incremental backups.
Does that sound reasonable/rational/doable?
Posted by: WordsMyth at October 28, 2008 4:23 PMHOLY COW!
Posted by: JOYOUS at October 31, 2008 7:19 PMALL I WANT TO DO IS SAVE MY E-MAIL FOLDERS TO A CD!
HOW COMPLICATED IS THAT...........
I HEARD YOU CAN BACK UP THE FOLDERS AND FREE UP SPACE SO YOUR COMPUTER CAN BE FASTER.
AS YOU CAN SEE...I AM A NOTICE....AND DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DO IT......TOOTLES
Leo,
I invested in a large capacity USB external hard drive for the specific purpose of making an image backup. When I went to choose the image backup program, the salesman advised me to make the backup on DVDs instead, "since the DVDs would be bootable and the hard drive wouldn't." I feel frustrated by my lack of knowledge and would appreciate knowing what extra steps would be involved in making a functional image backup on the external HD instead of DVDs.
Thank you.
My approach (using Acronis) is to create an Acronis Rescue/Boot CD once and then backup my data to the external USB hard disk. Then in the worst case scenario I can boot from that CD, which then has the Acronis tools to recover my data from the external hard drive.
03-Nov-2008
Leo, I TOTALLY agree with what you say about keeping the backup as far away as possible from the original.
Posted by: Steve Burgess at November 13, 2008 9:57 AMA local school library burned down - all of the contents were lost. The laptop on the librarian's desk looked like a cinder coughed up by a volcano. The laptop held an inventory of the library's contents - all of the info needed for the insurance company to pay out. The backup was on a CD in the desk drawer under the laptop. It turned into a little puddle of plastic. Fortunately, we were able to recover the data. If you're curious, there's a picture of the laptop here: http://www.datarecoveryworldwide.com/ (I don't think I can paste a picture in here). Incidentally, one of the things that kept the HD from being too far gone was that the laptop was sitting on a cheap plastic and cardboard three-ring binder - it provided just enough insulation so that the guts of the HD weren't totally fried (just well-done). Now the school district keeps backups in another room - AND keeps cheap three-ring binders under laptops!
I have Acronis True Image 11 Home.
I've been LQQKing at your postings on the subject of backing up.
Could you please post by the numbers, the steps to back up a C: drive with Acronis True Image.
Your doing what I want to do in Backing-up, I just want to go forward now.
Thanks,
Posted by: Dennis Conard at June 9, 2009 8:24 PMDennis in Sacramento
i THINK HE WANTED THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION. ONCE I PLUG IN MY EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ETC THEN HOW DO I GET THE FILES TO SAVE TO IT. EASY QUESTION BUT WAS NOT ANSWERED
Posted by: DEBBIE at June 12, 2009 9:37 AM