In life, you always need to have a backup plan, in case your initial idea wouldn't work out exactly as expected. The same principle applies when you work on your computer. Because a huge number of people today depend highly on their computers to get their work and business up and running, you can only imagine how vital maintaining files can be. Back then, humans depended on floppy disks and hard copy print outs to store their documents, but today, there are easier options of keeping files for you. Note this: It is very important to keep reminding yourself to backup your computer hard drive.
First of all, why is there a need to backup your computer hard drive? Computer experts cannot stress enough how valuable it is to regularly do this. If you have tons of very important files on your PC, such as documents, photos, web pages, spread sheets, presentations, and others, you wouldn't want to lose them, right? Creating a back up of the contents of your hard drive will save you the woes of finding for ways to recover them, especially after a disaster like a computer crash or a nasty virus.
So how do you go about it? If you are running on Microsoft Windows as your operating system, it has a built in wizard that automatically does the backup for your. This backup can be restored by you at a later time, or whenever you need to retrieve your files. You can invoke this option from Microsoft Windows by going to the Accessories menu from your Program Files. Select System Tools and click on Backup. Follow the instructions on the wizard and you're ready to go.
However, that is only one option, and not too many people look to it as their main choice for backup. The best thing you can do is to purchase an external hard drive for your computer. Typically, you can get an extra 300 GB or more to save your stuff when you use an external hard drive, which conveniently connects to your PC via USB. In some stores, you can purchase external hard drives that can hold as much as 1 terabyte, or 1,000 GB.
When you backup your files, ensure that they are sorted out into appropriately labeled folders, so it can be easy for you to find them later on. Some people zip their folders first before doing so, while protecting with a password is a must for specific files. Creating a backup is just a matter of making a copy of all your files, and saving them onto your external hard drive. It's simple, but a very necessary chore.
Backup your computer regularly! You'll be glad you did.
Taking the time to backup your data or entire hard drive is not as painstaking as it may seem.And the rewards of doing so will be great should your system experience a crash.
WINDOWS AND OTHER BACKUP SOFTWARE
If you have Windows XP you will need to install the new Windows backup utility from the Windows XP cdrom.Just place the WinXP cdrom in your cdrom drive and locate the line D:VALEADDMSFTNTBACKUP.
Here you see the first letter as D but if your optical drive have a different drive letter,exchange the D with your drive's letter.To install the utility,click on the file named NTBackup.msi.
The backup utility will be installed to the system tools group.Click Start,All Programs,Accessories,System Tools,and Backup.There is a neat wizard that will walk you through the backup process.
WinXP's backup utility will backup your entire hard drive and will make a recovery disk to boot.
One neat third party backup software you can try is NewTech InfoSystems at http://www.ntius.com where you can download their trial version and put it to use for 30 days.And if its your cup of tea,the full version will run you about $79.95
INCREMENTAL OR DIFFERENTIAL BACKUPS
You should back up your entire hard drive when you perform your first backup.After that it is best to perform an Incremental backup.This type of backup only allow you to backup files that have changed since your last performed backup.
Differential Backups copy changed files and files that have been added since you last did your entire backup. This type of backup is more detailed than incremental backups and is easier to restore.
BACKUP STORAGE DEVICES
You can backup your files on cdroms and have the files compressed to save both space and backup time.WinXP will compress folders,subfolders,and files during backup.
You can purchase compression software that will do the same saving you cdrom storage space.The compressed files are automatically uncompressed once they are restored unto your hard drive.
You can also use a second hard drive as your backup storage device.We use two backup hard drives to be certain Ultimate PC Repair is up and running 24/7.
You can either purchase an internal hard drive in install it to your ide cable or you may want to purchase an external hard drive that connects to your Universal Serial Bus or USB Port.
The advantage of the external drives is that they have very large amount of storage space,transfer data fast,and can be moved from your computer to any other computer.
We use the Western Digital 170 Gigabyte External Hard Drive and we simply bounce it around to either one of our four computers with the greatest of ease.
USING ONLINE BACKUP SERVICES
You may also consider online services for backing up your data.If you lose all your backup data,say due it a natural disaster such as a flood,your online data is right there waiting for you.
Another advantage of online backups is that you can access,upload,or download your data from any location. It is best to use high speed internet access if you're considering online data storage.
One such online backup service is Istorage located at http://www.iomega.com/istorage and charges from $2.49 a month for 50MBs to $17.95 a month for a big 1,000MBs of storage.
Or you can check out FilesAnywhere located at the url http://www.filesanywhere.com
Still another online service to try is CapSure located at http://www.capsure.com
Backup your system now in one way or another if you have not done so.If you have critical data that you simply cannot due without,take the time to invest in a backup device or one of the many online backup services.
Stop and perform those backups as soon as possible. You will be thankful you did should something go wrong with your computer.Its always better to be safe than sorry.
Both Heather Jacobson & Otis Cooper are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.