| If you have a computer for home use or for
your business and don't take comprehensive backup for full protection then you are in the
danger-zone. Maybe you do not take any backup at all.
You can find in Windows a basic backup utility which are
installed during the installation.
I should say for all Windows…,but in fact it is not
included during the installation of Windows XP Home Edition.
It is as if Microsoft thinks that data protection is not
necessary for home computers and computers used by small businesses.
It is true that hard drives are becoming less prone to hard
disk crashes.
But, if you consider not only hard disk crashes, but also
virus infection, theft plus other treats, then you realize the importance of implementing
a full-proof backup strategy for your computer.
Today many computers are equipped with a DVD burner, yet
most do not use it to manage their vital data backup. The amount of data you can store on
a single DVD is several Giga Byte.
There are many types of backup you can make.
Here are the steps that I take myself to fully secure my
data against data loss:
1. Disk image backup. I use a disk image backup software
and make a complete image backup of the disk on consecutive DVDs. I also create an
emergency rescue CD.
If I have a hard disk crash I’ll use this emergency CD
to boot from.
But, first I have to install and setup a new hard disk that
is working.
Then I can recreate the data directly back from this backup
stored on the DVDs. This work is made fast and without the need to spend time installing
both the operation system and the backup software. Everything is instead copied directly
into the hard disk from the DVD’s.
2. Full hard disk backup. I also use a data backup software
and create a full backup of the hard disk on consecutive DVD’s.
This is a standard disk backup. With this backup I'm able
to restore any files and/or folders. I can also move the data to another computer.
3. Regular scheduled backup of files and folder. Here I use
the same software product I use for the full disk backup. I make with this software
regular schedule backups of the files and folders I work with.
In my case they include My Documents, Outlook emails and
other files that are modified over time. I do this by keeping a permanent re-writable DVD
inside the DVD burner. I then rotate a number of DVD’s for this purpose so I can keep
copies away from the computer.
Whenever I install important new programs from the Internet
or I make other major changes to my system I’ll also create a new disk image backup
and a full hard disk backup.
You should use a DVD burner that is built for rewritable
DVDs. Unfortunately there are several competing DVD standards on the market.
The DVD-R, DVD-R and DVD-RAM standards supports DVDs which
only can be written to once and can’t be reused and those standards should be
avoided.
The DVD player should instead support at least one
rewritable DVDs standard. Either DVD-RW or DVD+RW.
Conclusion: I use regular schedule backup to backup the
data files I work with on a daily basis.
I’ll make a disk image backup so that in case of a
hard disk failure I will be back in business fast.
I also create a full disk backup so that I will be able to
restore individual files or folders. It makes it also possible to move the data to another
computer.
Copyright 2005 Per Strandberg |