Backing Up Your Computer By Eric Moore Types

Backing Up Your Computer By Eric Moore

Types of Backups Drive Imaging File Backups

Disk Imaging Copies an entire partition or hard drive to a single “image” file Saves to a hard drive, CD-RW, etc. Can compress the data May allow you to restore individual files

Examples of Disk Imaging Products Power. Quest™ Drive Image® n Now owned by Symantec™ Ghost PARAGON™ Drive Backup NTI™ Drive Backup

Advantages & Disadvantages of Disk Imaging Advantages: n n n Does not require booting Windows Emergency restore Supports “cloning” of a hard drive Disadvantages: n n n Slow Inefficient for backing up only a few files Can be dangerous if not used carefully

Traditional File Backup – Basic Features Backing up specific files and folders Backing up an entire hard drive Compression Password protection Restoring to an alternative location

Additional Features Scheduler Windows registry backup Emergency restoration Packet writing for CD-R and CD-RW File filtering n n n Include files Exclude files Modified files

Examples of File Backup Products AVANTRIX™ Backup Plus Dantz™ Retrospect My Own Backup (Free product) Stomp™ Back. Up My. PC® NTI™ Backup NOW!® Microsoft™ Backup

About Microsoft Backup Free, no-frills backup utility Supported media: n n n Tape Hard disk Zip disk Preformatted CD-RW or CD-R Floppy disk Does not support CD burning No file filtering using wildcards n For example, specifying *. DOC for all Word documents

Advantages and Disadvantages of File Backups Advantages: n n n Efficient for very small backups (much less than the entire hard drive) Ease of use (GUI) Inexpensive (Microsoft Backup) Disadvantages n n Restoring may require a bootable computer More capable products may be pricey ($50 or more)

Media Types and Their Costs (Prices from Cyberguys!) Media Type Cost per GB Floppy Disk $153 Zip 250 Disk $58 Tape $2. 35 - $15. 62 CD-R/RW $0. 43 / $0. 98 DVD $0. 74 - $2. 21 Hard Drive $0. 70

My Backup Strategy Monthly backup n Disk image using Power. Quest Drive Image Weekly backup n Incremental using Microsoft Backup Daily backup n Limited incremental using Microsoft Backup

Additional Thoughts on a Backup Strategy Don’t put it off! Make sure you can restore backed up data Keep redundant backups n n Two different discs Two different media types (e. g. hard drive and CD) Off-site storage n n Online backup service Safe deposit box Nothing lasts forever n n Media could good bad Media may become obsolete (e. g. , 5 ¼” disks)

For More Information: My CUGG Article: n http: //home. att. net/~moore. e. s/cugg/articles/backups. html CD-Recordable FAQ: n http: //www. cdrfaq. org/faq. html DVD FAQ: n http: //www. dvddemystified. com/dvdfaq. html