Most computer users don’t backup their data. Why? Generally, because it is a “task”. Well it doesn’t have to be a chore to protect the pictures, music, documents or other files that are important to you. I like to follow the “KISS” principle “Keep It Simple Stupid”… I dont mean that in a derogatory way, its just that we sometimes over-complicate things.
So, my suggestions in two parts for the end user are: 1) to purchase an external usb hard drive, and 2) to get some backup software. With the price of hard drives falling and the disk capacity increasing, this is a fairly inexpensive and easily implemented solution. Whenever I can promote free software I will. I use two types of backup software. One is a disk imaging software, DriveImage XML, and the other is a backup and synchronization software, SyncBack .
The differences are: disk imaging software (DriveImage XML) produces a “snapshot” of your entire hard drive, so that if the hard disk fails you can replace it and restore your “snapshot” to the new drive and it will boot up as if nothing had changed, and without having to re-install all your software and programs one at a time (a very time consuming process); file backup and synchonization software (SyncBack) allows you to choose the files or directories you want and you can schedule a time for it to run.
The difference between backup and synchronization is that backup will copy the files from a source directory to destination and always overwrite the contents with the most recent file version. Synchronization is actually keeping the source and destination directories current with each other, in other words, if I create a file “test.txt” in the destination folder when it synchronizes that file will be copied to the source directory so that files in both place remain current at all times with each other.
There are also commercial applications which are lifesavers as well, and two that I like are Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image. Both are robust and offer the “snapshot” backup option. All of the previously mentioned softwares allow you to restore one file at a time if necessary, so that if you accidently delete a document you can recover it from your backup. Other important solutions you can consider are online services such as I-drive or Carbonite. Your data is backed up to the internet and can be recovered from anywhere! These softwares and services are by no means the only solutions available and are mentioned for purpose of example.
One easily implemented hybrid solution I share with clients is to backup locally to the external drive and then use the online service to backup the same files to the internet. This provides redundancy in the event that your computer and external drive are destroyed by meteor strike or tropical typhoon, or heaven forbid, something more likely, such as a fire or flood in your home or business.
The most important thing to remember though is this: how much do you value your family pictures? Or, your family or business financials? Without a backup you lose everything in a catastrophe whereas if you are prepared you can recover relatively quickly and easily and rest assured your data backup is as current as you want it to be!
Please visit TucsonPCTech for more information and ideas regarding the protection of your data.
