Computer Backups

I'm guessing if most home users were honest, they would admit they have no strategy for backing up important files on their computer, or, if they have a plan, they actually do it so rarely that the backups they have probably won't do them any good.

While many people will never be in a situation where a backup is critical, there certainly are many files on any user's computer which would be difficult or impossible to recover if a hard drive failed. While you might be able to reconstruct your checking account information, those digital pictures which were only stored on your computer will be lost forever.

Not only can a backup protect you from a catastrophic failure in your computer, but also can be a help with some of life's lesser computer problems, such as files deleted or overwritten by mistake.

There are many ways to backup your files, and which one is easiest and most effective for you is the one you should use. If the job is too hard or time consuming, it won't get done often enough to be useful.

When it comes to backing up your computer, don't try to back up the entire hard drive. If your hard drive did fail, you probably would have to rebuild Windows and your other applications anyway. To be ready for that eventuality, the key is to know where your installation disks and license codes are.

What you want to back up are the settings that would be difficult to recreate and the files that you have created and saved on your computer.

The first decision to make is what method you want to use.

Backing up to floppy disks would be a bad idea for many reasons, not the least of which is that many computers don't have floppy drives anymore. Flash drives (or thumb drives, key chain drives or however you know them) will work, but be careful to store them safely as the information on them can be ruined if the conditions aren't right.

Many people today use CD or DVD burners to do backups. If you have a good system for organizing your files, you can create a job in your burning software and run it on a regular basis so that the new and changed files are burned to a CD or DVD. With the disks marked safely (make sure the marker used is CD safe) and put away, you have an archival copy that would allow you to go back weeks and months if necessary to locate something that you didn't think you'd ever need again.

If you have a home network, one option is to copy important files from one computer to another so that if a hard drive fails you have a copy on the other hard drive.

There are many software programs out there which allow you to automate your backups. The programs, which can be set up to run on a schedule, burn your files to a disk or copy them to some other location. Backup My PC is a example of the type of program.

While you may be tempted to use the backup program that comes with Windows, I recommend against that. The various versions of backup software that Microsoft has made part of Windows are notorious for not being able to actually recover any files, especially if you are trying to do the restoration on a computer other than the one where the files originally existed.

Another option is to use a program such as Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image which have the ability to clone the entire hard drive, or to carry out other backup chores. The programs have many more features than programs designed simply for backup and may be intimidating for some users and right for others.

One weakness of the methods mentioned so far is that most users end up storing their backup copies in the same general location as their computer. If a disaster such as a home fire struck, they'd probably lose both the computer and the backups.

That issue, and general ease of use, has led many users to another form of backup -- online backup.

To use an online backup service, you install an application on your computer. You tell it which directories you want backed up, and how. The backup then runs on its own.

Some online services run on a schedule, such as once a day. Others are "continuous" backups -- whenever your computer is idle, the program comes alive and checks the folders you'd identified for any files that have been changed or new ones. If it finds one, the file is compressed, encrypted and sent to the service provider for storage.

The online systems mean that even if you are hit by a house fire, your computer files are still safe.

There are many online backup service providers available. Probably the best known is Carbonite. They were a pioneer in the field, and their low prices have consistently drawn attention. They charge $50 for a one-year subscription which will give you a backup service for an unlimited amount of data files from one computer. The service excludes executable and other application-related files, and you need a subscription for each computer you are backing up.

An option that could be less expensive if you want to back up more than one computer is a service like Data Deposit Box. It allows you to backup multiple computers to a single account for a charge of $2 per gigabyte, per month.

Both services offer a free trial.

Another service to look at is Mozy. Mozy charges $4.95 per month for an unlimited amount of storage space.

Examine the options before deciding what's best for you. What's most important is that you do something.