SIMPLE COMPUTER BACKUPS

Backing up is an essential part of computer maintenance. Unfortunately many people are unaware that hard disk failure is not an especially rare event. The reason most avoid this process is due in part to human inertia but also partly due to hesitancy about what is involved in the backup process.

There are some simple backup strategies which use resources that most people already have, and that any PC user can employ. These minimum procedures are not substitutes for the real thing but they will at least prevent total disaster.

Those who wish to do thorough and complete backups will find many “how-to” articles on the Internet. For around $100- $150, several manufacturers sell external USB hard drives that come with their own software for easy backups.

Before Backup
Before you waste a lot of time and space, CLEAN up your computer first. Empty your Recycle Bin, and delete your Internet Cookies and Temporary Files. All this can be done with Disk Cleanup – Start-All Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Cleanup. Choose Drive C: and let Windows clean out the suggested files. Then organize all your data files into My Documents so that you don't need to search for the files you want to backup.

Where and How to Backup

CD-RW or DVD Drives
The whole point of these backups is to protect against hard drive failure, a virus infection, or other problem that either destroys vital data or makes it inaccessible from your present system. Thus, the backup medium must be external to the hard drive. Ideally, this means another hard drive but for a minimum procedure a CD-RW drive will serve. Almost all computers now come with CD burners (or better yet a DVD burner). Please note that GoBack, Windows System Restore, and similar programs provide no protection against disk failure since they back up on the main hard drive itself.

Although many people recommend the rewritable kind of CD (CD-RW) and the use of incremental backups, using the plain CDs (CD-R) that can be written to only once works fine. Actually, with the proper software and if don’t close the CD, you can keep writing in multiple sessions until the CD-R fills up.

A simple and easy plan is that once a week you burn to a CD-R whatever files you want to protect. Each week use a fresh CD blank. To be safe, keep a couple of week’s worth and throw away the rest. Since we are not talking about a full backup, one CD may be enough to hold everything that you wish to back up. Those with DVD burners have a lot more capacity but if you have a lot of photos or multimedia, you should probably be considering another hard drive. Almost any computer that comes with a CD burner will have the necessary software and the procedure isn’t much more involved than copying to a floppy. If you have Windows XP, you can use the minimal CD burning capability that is bundled with the operating system. A simple copy on a closed CD-R requires no special software to restore and can be read by any ordinary CD drive.

Thumb Drives as a backup
USB thumb drives (or flash or jumpdrives or whatever you call them) are large enough and cheap enough to be another perfectly feasible backup medium. They do have a limited number of possible rewrite but the number is large enough for practical purposes. Thumb drives act just like another drive and are very easy to use as you don't need any special "burning" software like you do with CD-RW or DVD drives. (Thumb drives are also easy to lose so be careful with them.) Copying can also be done from Windows Explorer or in some cases copies can be created directly from the file menu of the software involved, as in Word, Quicken or tax programs.

Whether you use a CD-RW drive and special "burning" software or just copy your documents to a thumb drive, the easiest procedure is to create a "Backup" folder on the hard drive and to make copies of documents in that folder whenever you work on them. Then periodically copy this "Backup" folder to the external medium.

What to backup
So what should be included in a minimum backup? Obviously, it will vary from person to person, but there are certain basic categories everyone should consider. Since we are addressing the needs of the prototypical average home PC user, these categories include:

· E-mail, address books, Internet bookmarks/favorites, passwords and logins
· Financial data: banking, tax, investment
· Other important personal data
· User-created documents such as correspondence and school reports
· Photos, important music files

Backing up Internet related items
Backing up Internet related items can be more complicated and the methods depend on what browser and which e-mail client you use. Most common browsers have an export function that will allow you to back up favorites (bookmarks) and cookies.

Bookmarks: In Internet Explorer open the "File" menu and select "Import and Export. Follow the instructions in the "wizard" that will open, which will allow you to create a file “Bookmarks.htm” containing all your Internet Favorites. Export it to your backup location. This file in turn can be imported by IE should you need to restore your favorites.

Email: Backing up email will vary among clients, so click on your software's "Help" in the toolbar.

Windows Address Book: The Windows address book is in a file with the extension WAB. The usual location is: C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book. You can copy this file to a backup location.


Installing Backup in Windows XP Home Edition

The backup utility – file name ntbackup.msi - is not included in the default installation of Windows XP Home Edition. However, it can be found on the full Windows XP installation disk where it is present on the CD in the folder \VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP. Unfortunately, many vendors no longer sell computers with a full installation CD. The necessary Windows file can be downloaded from this site:

http://www.onecomputerguy.com/software_download.htm

Once you have downloaded the file to your computer, click on it and Windows will automatically install it to your hard drive.

Once installed, the backup utility can be found in Start-All Programs-Accessories-System Tools. In thE dialog box, you have a choice between Microsoft's step-by-step "Wizard" or the "Advanced Mode".

The simplest choice is to use the Wizard. Click "Next". You have a choice of creating a new backup or restoring a previous backup. Make a selection and click "Next".

The next window appears if you are making a new backup. It gives you a choice of what to back up. You may wish to back up everything or just certain folders and/or files.

Now choose where you want to put the backup and what you want to call it. If you are backing up the entire system, make sure that the backup medium has enough space. When you have chosen the destination, click "Next".


NTBackup and CD-R / CD-RW Drives - This really should go under a "You Gotta Be Kidding" category, but NTBackup does not allow you to back up directly to a CD-R or CD-RW drive. I know; the supposedly best, most stable and advanced operating system Microsoft has offered and no CD burner support in backup. The only solution is to back up to a folder on your hard drive and then copy it to CD.

The next dialog box shows the settings that you have chosen. If they are correct, click "Finish" to create the backup. If you wish, there are also some advanced settings that can be used to modify the backup procedure. They can be accessed by clicking the "Advanced' button before proceeding to "Finish". These settings are considered below.


Set a Schedule—and Stick to It
If you're disciplined enough, you can repeat the above steps once each week. If you'd rather not count on remembering to perform this crucial task, however, set up an automatic backup schedule for Windows. When you get to the final page of the Backup Wizard, don't click Finish. Instead, click the Advanced button, and click Next to open the When to Back Up page. Choose Later, and then click Set Schedule to open the Schedule Job dialog box.
You can set almost any schedule you want by poking around in the extensive set of options available in this dialog box. After you click OK to save your changes, Windows XP runs the backup automatically. Just remember to leave your computer turned on.

All in all, you can count on backing up 5 GB of data in as little as 10 minutes. And you don't need to worry about shutting down running programs, either—thanks to a feature called volume shadow copy, the Backup utility can safely create a copy of any file, even if it's currently in use.