BACKUP

Do you know where your DATA files are?  No?  What will you do when your hard drive crashes?  It will you know.  It is not at question of "IF"... it is a matter of "WHEN"?  How will you recover your precious documents, spreadsheets, databases, financial data?   

There are a number of BACKUP options, after market and built into your Operating System.   A rule of thumb is to not backup what you can restore.  For example, your DATA cannot be restored but an Application can be.  You do not need to backup all of say Microsoft Office because it can be re-installed via the disks.  However, the DATA generated from the Office suite cannot be re-installed and thus needs to be backed up.  A good idea is to always keep your DATA files in a central location.  Microsoft Office for example by default keeps all of it's document files in the folder MY DOCUMENTS.  This is great as they did the work for you.  If you have allowed all of your documents to be saved to the default MY DOCUMENTS folder than it is very easy when you perform a backup to be confident that your documents will be backed up when you backup that folder.  You can also save other data files to the MY DOCUMENTS folder as most applications allow you to select a backup folder.  The application will not only save it's specific data to it's specific folder but also prompt you to make a backup to another location which can be the MY DOCUMENTS folder.  Applications that do this are like Microsoft Money or Intuit's Quicken.  Obviously the financial data produced by each of these applications would be considered important DATA.

The first step to successfully backing up your precious DATA as mentioned above is to determine a central place that your data is kept.  It is important to know where your DATA files are located on your computer.  Whether you keep your personal important DATA in the MY DOCUMENTS folder or another central folder the next step in successfully backing up is to have a copy of your DATA on some other media besides your local hard drive.  Besides floppy disks (High Density only holds 1.44 megs) there are many other REMOVABLE MEDIA types available these days.  Iomega makes an internal or external JAZ drive which can hold up to 2 gigs per cartridge and are very easy and reliable to use.  There are also various tape devices on the market these days.  If you do not need that much space for backups you might want to consider the Iomega ZIP drive which can hold up to 2 hundred megs in a little removable cartridge about the same size as a 3.5 inch floppy.  None of these removable devices are very expensive, especially when you consider the cost of loosing all your precious DATA.  Many of these devices also come with a backup application which is fairly easy to use.  If your Operating System is Microsoft Windows 95 - 2000 you can use the built in BACKUP application.  

To BACKUP the MY DOCUMENTS folder using Windows 98 Backup do the following:
NOTE:  the launch steps are the same for newer Operating Systems as well.

1.  Click the START button.
2.  Click PROGRAMS.
3.  Click ACCESSORIES.
4.  Click SYSTEM TOOLS.
5.  Click BACKUP.

6.  At the WELCOME screen select CREATE A NEW BACKUP JOB and click OK.



7.  Select BACKUP SELECTED FILES, FOLDERS etc.  Click NEXT.

8.  Click the PLUS sign in the box next to the drive containing the DATA you wish to backup.  This will expand the drive so you can select the folders and or files.

9.  Click in the box next to MY DOCUMENTS.  This will place a check mark in the box indicating that you wish for everything in this folder to be backed up.  Note:  You can also select individual files within the folder to be backed up also however, I will not be covering this at this time.

10. Select ALL SELECTED FILES.  Click NEXT.

11.  The Backup Wizard will continue asking you where you want to BACKUP to.  Click the button to the right of the second box underneath FILE.

12.  Click the arrow in the LOOK IN box to select the location for you backup.  This example shows the BACKUP is going to be to a REMOVABLE DRIVE such as an Iomega JAZ or ZIP drive.  You can also backup to a FLOPPY Drive.  This way the BACKUP can be stored in a safe location.  From this point you can also select another HARD DRIVE on the machine or even a NETWORK DRIVE for you backup.  Once the location is selected click the OPEN button.

13.  Once the location for you BACKUP is selected the next step is to name the BACKUP file.  I always like to name the BACKUP file with the date of the backup.  For example the file below is going to be backed-up to a REMOVABLE DRIVE with the name of the backup file Backup030400 showing the date as March 4, 2000.  This way you can have multiple backups with the backup file name showing the date it was backed-up.  Once the file is named click the OPEN button.

14.  This now brings us back to the BACKUP WIZARD showing the location and file name to be backed-up.  Click NEXT.

15.  It is always a good idea to check COMPARE original and backup files.  This will make sure that was is being backed-up is actually what is on your computer.  You can also select COMPRESS the backup.  This will make the backup as small as possible in order to conserve space.  Click NEXT.

16.  Enter a name for the BACKUP.  This is not the name of the file but rather a name for the process.  I usually just call this "BACKUP".  Now we are ready.  Click START.

17.  The BACKUP will start showing the progress, status and how much time has elapsed.

18.  When the BACKUP is finished a small window will pop up showing the BACKUP is completed.  Click OK.

19.  The PROGRESS window will now show whether the BACKUP was successful with no errors.  If there were errors you would be able to view what they are.  Click OK.

20.  You can now exit BACKUP.  Click on JOB on the menu bar and then EXIT at the bottom.  To RESTORE a BACKUP is basically in reverse.

To launch Backup in newer Operating Systems such as Windows 2000 and XP:

1. Click START
2. Click PROGRAMS
3. Click ACCESSORIES
4. Click SYSTEM TOOLS
5. Click BACKUP

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