Tech School: Backup Essentials

We live in a culture of denial that results in an unwillingness to accept the truth. For example, many people refuse to be tested for HIV and other STD's despite having multiple sexual partners. Also, many people don't want to see their credit report even though they have several maxed out credit cards. Furthermore, despite overwhelming evidence that a partner is cheating, many people hesitate to find out the truth and simply turn a blind eye. The idea seems to be that bad news can't hurt me if I don't know about it. The problem is that the truth will eventually catch up with you, and this particularly applies to the world of computers. Here is the truth about your hard drive that you don't want to hear: one day it will die taking your documents, pictures, music, videos and other (usually irreplaceable) data with it. The corollary to this truth is this: you have no way of knowing when that day will come; it could be tomorrow. Yes, a hard drive failure is in your future if you own a computer. The only way to protect yourself is to back up your data.

Backing up the data on your computer is like flossing your teeth. Many people know that they should do it, but they often skip the activity. We all lead busy lives, right? Right, until your dentist tells you that you have gum disease and will spend your golden years drinking your steaks. Yes, backup is a boring tedious task that few will applaud you for doing. And how exactly should you do the backup anyway? Well, it is as easy as answering those classic Four W's and an H we learned in middle school: Why, What, Where, How, and When (listed in that order for a reason). By the way, I have already gone over the "Why" so, let's dive into the second W.

What
Computers have a lot of data on them, and their storage capacity increases every year as technology advances. Furthermore, the cost of storage continues to drop dramatically. This results in even more data being stored on our humble hard drives. However, you don't have to backup all of it. The programs installed on your computer usually have registry entries that will require re-installation if the hard drive fails. Therefore, you don't have to worry about backing up program folders (just make sure you keep the original installation discs and any applicable product keys). I suggest that you have all of your data in one place. Windows makes this easy with the "My Documents" folder which is the default location for storing personal data. This is a good place to put everything that you want to back up including documents, spreadsheets, music, pictures, and videos. The benefit of having one place for all of your important files lies in the fact that you only have to backup from one location on your hard drive. If you want to be more sophisticated, you can create a separate partition for storing your data. This is what I do because I format and re-install Windows once a year (to get rid of "bit rot"), and I can format the main partition and install Windows on it without worrying about destroying my data since it is stored on another partition. An even more sophisticated approach is to have a separate physical internal or external hard drive. This allows you to back up your data and also have two spindles available to the computer: one for the operating system and one for your data which should provide a performance increase to your computer. Whether you use the "My Documents" folder, a separate partition, or a separate drive, the key is to have one place to store your important data.

Where
A backup is essentially a copy of your data. Once you put all of your data in one place on your computer, you have to decide where to put the copy of that data. You have a number of options. Most computers have a CD burner so you could burn the copy to a CD. However, unless you use rewritable media, you have to swap in a blank CD before doing the backup, and you are limited to 700 MB. Most people have larger storage needs so you can burn your copy to a DVD if your computer has a DVD burner. This allows you to store up to 4.7 GB of data. However, again, unless you use rewritable DVD's, you have to put in a fresh DVD before doing the backup. A more flexible solution is the use of a USB key which can provide storage capacity equaling or surpassing what is available on DVD. There is also the convenience of making multiple copies to the flash drive without having to swap it out. If you have a large amount of music, pictures, or video on your computer, then you may need to make use of an internal or external hard drive. These have the benefit of providing a very large amount of storage (up to 1 Terabyte). However,no matter where you choose to store your backup copy, it won't help you if your house burns down. Therefore, for the maximum protection, I recommend keeping another backup location somewhere else (like work) and make sure you keep your backup of your backup up to date. An easier though possibly more expensive solution is to use an online backup service like Carbonite.

How
Now that you have your data in one place and a place to put your copy, you need to determine how to move your files from your central storage location to your backup location. Windows has a built in backup utility, but I don't care for it. It makes one big "glob" that you have to mount in order to see what is inside of it. I prefer to backup to the actual physical files because I can then see them in the backup location. Therefore, I recommend free tools like SyncBack or SyncToy which let you backup from a source to a target location. They can even synchronize between the two locations taking into account changes made in both places. However, I usually do a one way backup because my policy is to only make changes in my central storage location and have those changes overwrite the backup version.

When
How often should you run your backup? I suggest at least once a week. Both Syncback and Synctoy can be scheduled to run at weekly intervals. Once you do your initial backup, subsequent backups usually operate on a smaller set of files (the ones you have changed). Therefore, when your hard drive crashes, you can restore from the backup and lose no more than a week's worth of information on the small number of files that you modified since the last backup. However, if you frequently change a large number of critical files, then you may want to back up more often even possibly adopting a daily backup schedule.

Now, you are prepared for the day your hard drive spins its last breath never again to see the data stored on it. Instead of that day be one of weeping and gnashing of teeth, you can calmly go to your computer store of choice, buy and new hard drive, and copy your backup to it without breaking a sweat.