We all know that we should
back up our system as soon
as possible.But if you're like most of us,you will get to it
tomorrow.The problem is that tomorrow rarely ever comes
until you experience a serious computer failure and then
its too lake.
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
willl need to install the new
Windows backup ultility from the Windows XP cdrom.Just
place the WinXP cdrom in your cdrom drive and locate
the line D:\VALEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP.
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 dissaster 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.
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.
======================
Article by: Otis F. Cooper
Learn how to save your computer
visit our site today! http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com/ allaboutpc@juno.com
======================
You may reprint this article if
the author box is kept intact
Copyright 2002 Otis F. Cooper
======================
.gif)
