More In depth - Data Back Up

Today I'm going to continue my tirade about backing up data. First you need a back up system that makes it easy for you to easily create back ups. I should mention that the data that we are interested in maintaining copies of are usually changeables, that is files that get edited/updated regularly - eg. Documents, E-mails, Contacts lists, Bookmarks etc. There are also the files that you want back ups of that don't change often. Most notably Music, Videos, and Pictures.

So the first line of defense is knowing what to back up, discussed above. Next, where are these files located? Most programs have a default location that they save files to. Again most programs will allow you to change that default location. I highly recommend that you change the default location to a specific "data" folder if not to a independent drive/partition.

From this point all you need is a back up mechanism. Be it a program, I recommend 2nd Copy found here, or an alarm clock that prompts you to do it manually. So you have created you back up files now what? Where to store them and how many you need are the questions you need to answer. I would next like to point out that one copy is not enough. Why you ask? Read on.

Ideally you want multiple copies. You would have a copy on a separate hard drive that is portable for quick and easy retrieval, (fire/flood etc.) and another copy be it, on DVD, hard drive, or the Internet, that is kept off the premises. Trust worthy friends, lock boxes, or whatever works for you. Always try and think worst case scenario.

Data retrieval is extremely slow and expensive. Therefore you want to have some redundancy in your system, hence the multiple copies. Hard drives fail a lot, its not if its when. Modern hard drives are rated in hours till failure. Some of the newer ones have a failure rate of 3% right off the shelf! Now i'm not trying to scare you here. I am trying to prepare you for what can happen and how you will respond to this. Will you lose everything? Or will you only lose the things that have been changed since your last back up?

William - Computers Plus
www.killertechsupport.com