Got Backups?
       By: Ron Barrett
Posted: 2007-09-16 10:44:34
The kids are finally in bed, dishes are done, kitchen is cleaned and you want to get on the computer to check your emails and upload those fantastic pictures you took last weekend at the lake to (insert favorite online photo processing service).BSODYou turn the computer on and one of four things happen: 1) it starts normally and you are on your merry way; 2) it just doesn't do anything; 3) it starts making an awful clicking/grinding noise and you stare at the monitor hoping that something happens; 4) you are staring at an ugly looking BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) with wording and codes that mean nothing to you.It really is a crap shoot each and every time you turn on your computer.Do you remember the Got Milk commercials on television? Well...Precious creations-safe or not?No matter who you are, almost every time you use your computer at home, you are creating something of personal value that you want to save. It may be document for work or the next letter you are going to send to your best friend, or a school project. Or it could be the spreadsheet you are using for your personal financial records. Maybe it is those pictures of the kids you took while at the lake last weekend. Whatever they are, you want them to be there when you need them again.What harm is there in saving almost everything you do on the computer's hard drive? These precious creations are safe aren't they? If you're nodding your head yes, think again. Even if you have a brand-spanking-new speed demon of a computer, an unpredictable disaster could destroy your data.Your house could catch on fire and burn down or be flooded, making mince meat of the work documents, term paper, or ruining those digital memories from the weekend that are stored on your hard drive. A hard drive crash is far more likely. Hard drives crash. Not very often, but they crash. It's one of computing's hard facts of life.Crash!.Drive manufacturers give overstated "mean time between failure" rates, or the average time between crashes (in hard drive speak). For example, the lowest MTBF that one drive manufacturer gives for any of its drives is 500,000 hours. That translates to about 57 years of running time. A more realistic number is found in in the service-life projection of five years. It doesn't matter how well hard drives are made or how long they can last under ideal circumstances, a drive can fail at any time due to damage that can occur during assembly, shipping, or moving. If you are moving your computer from one place to another, dropping or jarring the computer or the drive itself can cause earlier than normal failure; so can static electricity charges. And of course, some drives will fail prematurely no matter how well you take care of them.There are other dangers to watch our for as well. You are reading this article, so you are connected to the Internet. You could be a victim of a virus or Trojan Horse that destroys files or worse, hard drives. And here's another distinct possibility: User error. Simple human mistakes are a large cause of data loss, and no matter how much experience you have been using computers, the day will come when you click in the wrong spot in an open window. Uh oh! Suddenly, your files are gone.How to backupThe only way to recover from a disaster like any of the above is to back your files up. There are several methods of doing this and it's not as difficult as you may think. Backing your files up will provide you with peace of mind if you ever do encounter the despicable BSOD or any other cause of your computer not being able to start up again.There are several ways to go about doing this. Back in the day, backing up to zip disks or jaz drives was a good way of doing this. These days, considering the size of hard drives, you can either choose to back up selected files to rewritable cd's or dvd's or you can back up your files to an online backup service. You will pay for this service, but in the case of a hard drive crash or some other catastrophe, it is probably worth it. There are also several utilities available that will allow you to either create a backup file on the hard drive or save a file to an external hard drive. Using one of these utilities does sometimes require a learning curve, if you can figure it out at all.With Windows XP, you also have the capablity of creating a restore point, but in the case of a hard drive failure, this isn't going to do you much good. XP also has a backup utility but my experience with that is that those backups are only as good as the ability to access the hard drive in the event of a crash.My FaveMy favorite method of backing up data is using a utility that the computer boots to a Windows XP looking desktop and then backing up the entire drive to an external usb hard drive. What this does is that in the case of hard drive failure or any other catastrophe, I am able to rebuild the computer and it boots up to the way I had it set up at the time of the backup. No reinstalling all of my applications. Nice. There is more information about this utility at my website.How often?How often should you back up? If you spend a lot of time on the computer and have a lot of files that you feel would be hard to recreate, I would suggest once a week at a minimum. If you don't spend a whole lot of time on the computer, but still have files that you would consider irreplaceable, maybe once a month.How often should you back up? If you spend a lot of time on the computer and have a lot of files that you feel would be hard to recreate, I would suggest once a week at a minimum. If you don't spend a whole lot of time on the computer, but still have files that you would consider irreplaceable, maybe once a month..So, the question again...Ron Barrett is the owner of Ron's Computer Service, your online helpdesk for computer related problems. You can read more articles similar to this at his website or subscribe to his weekly newsletter Bits and Bytes: Decoding the Digital Worldhere. He is Certified Help Desk Analyst, CompTIA A+ Certified and has earned a Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology. He has worked in several companies in the role of help desk analyst, desk top support and network/email administrator. In his free time he enjoys spending time with his wife and three boys, working around the house and trying to perfect his golf swing.
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