Make regular backups
Backups are the last line of defence against hardware failure, floods or fires, the damage caused by a security breach or just accidental deletion of data. Ask yourself what would happen if you lost all your critical business data – how long would it take you to recover? How much disruption and delay would occur?
Why make backups?
Backups protect you against:
- Hardware failure. Disk failure is rare but it does happen.
- Accidental file deletion.
- Theft and natural disaster.
- Catastrophic virus or spyware infections, if you have to erase your hard disk and reinstall everything.
Backup tips
- Plan for the worst case. Think about the worst thing that could happen to your computer data and protect against that.
- Keep your data in one place on your computer, for example in a folder inside My Documents, so that it can be easily backed up.
- Backup all your data (but not programs or operating system – they can be copied from the original disks).
- Occasionally restore some data to make sure the backup system is working properly.
- Store some backups away from home (or ‘offsite’ to use the jargon) in case your backup data gets stolen or damaged along with the computer it is backing up.
- Encrypt and password-protect backups to protect your privacy.
- Keep some old ones. Every couple of months make an archive backup and keep it rather than recycling the media. That way you’ll have a periodic snapshot of your data.
- Don’t keep backups with the computer they are backing up in case they are stolen or damaged at the same time.
How to backup
If you use rewritable media such as tapes or Zip disks, most people have three sets of disks. That way they have the latest backup, the one before that and the one before that.
If your software allows, you can make a full backup, which is a complete copy of all the backed up data and then an incremental backup which is just a backup of all the files that have changed since the full backup. An incremental backup is much quicker and can be done daily while a full backup probably needs to be done weekly.
There’s a difference between an archive, which you intend to keep, and a backup which is just a temporary copy of files in case of problems. It makes sense to make a permanent archive of your data periodically.
Different media are useful for different types of content and risk. For example, you can use an external hard disk for backing up digital photos and MP3s and CDs for backing up documents.
How to choose a backup method
The first requirement is to calculate how much data you need to backup. You can right click on a folder, such as the My Documents folder, and Windows will display the size of the data it contains. Choose a method that will safely backup that amount plus a reasonable amount for future growth.
The second requirement is to balance ease of use, speed and price. The balance varies from person to person and the choice is up to you.
The following guide to different methods will give a guide.
Floppy disks
Not recommended.
USB flash memory sticks
Memory sticks plug into a computer’s USB port and appear in My Computer as a removable disk drive.
Price: £15-100 depending on capacity.
Capacity: 32 megabytes – 2 gigabytes.
Pros: compact, fast, portable.
Cons: limited capacity, pricy.
Ideal for: normal documents (but not music, digital photos or movies).
Recordable CDs
With a CD drive that is capable of writing to CDs, it is easy to create a backup using blank recordable CDs.
Price: internal drives from £15, disks approximately 25p each in bulk.
Capacity: up to 700 megabytes per disk.
Pros: can be read on any CD-ROM drive, easy to use and store, cheap media.
Cons: slow to copy files, fiddly if your data overspills a single disk.
Ideal for: most home users.
Recordable DVDs
Recordable DVDs are similar to CDs but with more capacity. New computers often include DVD writers but you may need to add it as an upgrade on an older machine.
Price: internal drives from £35, disks approximately 70p each in bulk.
Capacity: 5.2 gigabytes per disk.
Pros: can be read in most DVD-ROM drives, easy to use and store, cheap.
Cons: copying an entire disk can take a long time.
Ideal for: home users with lots of digital images or large data files.
Additional hard disks
An external hard disk that plugs into a computer’s USB port is a fast, efficient way of backing up lots of data, such as music or photos but they are less convenient for keeping backups offsite.
Price: from £50 for 30 gigabytes (more for higher capacity).
Capacity: from 30 gigabytes to 400 gigabytes.
Pros: portable, high capacity, fast.
Cons: not easy to store away from home, expensive.
Ideal for: protecting against the risk of hardware failure.
Tape drives
Larger businesses use tape drives, such as DAT and DLT, to make backups.
Price: drives start at around £500 and tapes at around £12 each.
Capacity: DAT drives can typically store 36 gigabytes uncompressed.
Pros: high capacity portable media, cheapest price per megabyte for removable media.
Cons: expensive, possibly overkill for home users.
Ideal for: small businesses or users with lots of big files such as video.
Online backup
Companies like BT Digital Vault, Carbonite, Streamload, Xdrive or ClunkClick allow you to backup over the internet to their online vaults. See DMOZ for an extensive list of online backup providers.
Price: for example, around £3 a month for 5 gigabytes.
Capacity: unlimited but the more storage you need the more you pay.
Pros: free trials, no equipment to buy, automated backup, encrypted offsite storage.
Cons: what if they go bust? Or put up the prices? Requires a broadband internet connection. In addition, firms based outside the EU may not have the same data protection and privacy safeguards as European firms.
Ideal for: small businesses or users with lots of big files such as video.
Backup software
You can do simple backups with most media simply by copying the files from your computer to the device or by using software that came with it, such as CD burner software.
Read Microsoft’s guidance on how to run backups in different versions of Windows.