Why bother with backup? Can you imagine what would happen if all of a sudden *poof* everything is wiped off your computer. You had not installed any pc backup software. You could not get into files, retrieve pictures or music downloads and all programs and saved documents were lost. Permanently. Most people dread the thought and yet system crashes, file corruption and emergency disasters do happen to computers on a daily basis. So what can be done about it?

Saving the day

There are numerous commercially available software programs designed to backup your computer. Installing a pc backup software is critical to maintaining your computer and avoiding any unnecessary reinstalls or lost material. Pc backup software will store and save:

* Data entry files
* Emails
* Music
* Photographs
* Financial records
* Billing and invoicing records
* Programs and downloads
* Operating systems

Pc backup software works by protecting, preserving and archiving the data on your computer at regularly scheduled times. Programs can then be restored through the pc backup software program. By using pc backup software you do not have to go through the trouble of reinstalling operating systems and other programs. Wizards and easy to follow step-by-step instructions make pc backup software easy to use for beginner and advanced computer users, whether you are backing up just a few files or the whole system.

What is on the market?

There are multitudes of pc backup software items on the market. As with any program, knowing what you need is essential to determine which pc backup software program will most closely match your needs. A very brief list of pc backup software can be found below:

* Backup MyPC - is available for personal, small business computers as well as small networks. This pc backup software has won awards from PC World Magazine for three years in a row. It offers provides easy to follow wizards to help you automatically set-up your pc for regularly scheduled backups. This pc backup software uses password protection to ensure continued safety and security for your data.

* NovaBACKUP - allows backup to any number of devices such as tape, CD-RW, DVD or disk. In addition to the features mentioned above it also is network friendly and all computers on a network can be backed up from one pc. This pc backup software also scans for viruses while performing the backup and uses open file backup to allow files that are opened to be saved even as data is being entered.

* Norton Ghost - is also an award winning pc backup software. It has been editor’s choice for two year in PC Magazine and in 2004 for Bityard. This program works only with Windows XP Home Edition/Professional or Windows 2000 Professional. There is a version, Norton Ghost 2003, that will work with Windows 98 and Me. This pc backup software offers fully automatic backup for everything on your computer.

On http://www.build-computerz.com/ you will find articles on build your custom computers and make your own computers.

You are clearing all the junk on your hard disk. Shift+Del. Shift+Del. Shift+Del. Oops you just deleted that most important file. Now if you have google desktop search installed you may get back your data. Search for the file name, say "veryimportant.doc" and sort by relevence. Your file must be visble. Next to the description you will find a link called cache. If you click, you will be taken to a webpage which will contain the content of that file. Google keeps a cache of files on your desktop so that they may be easily searched. You are using that cache to get back your file.

How to get your website back without a backup.
Imagine this.You create a website. Burn the midnight lamp on all that CSS, HTML and what not. And just after you upload your website your server crashes. No backups. Are you doomed? Google to the rescue. This is based on the fact that google keeps a cache of all websites they crawl. And you can view that cache.

Suppose your site is xyz.net

In google search box type site:xyz.net Google will show all the pages of your site. But if you want to visit them, obviously you can’t. Your webhost has just lost them. Google to rescue. Next to your website address, there is a link called cached. If you click this link you will be taken to a page which will contain text of your webpage. So if you have some time to waste and data to recover, You can get all your pages back. (Sans the css and images.)

Shabda Raaj is a freelance webdesigner and programmer. Tutorials from him can be found at http://free-tutorials.blogspot.com/

The hard drive in our computers right now stores all of our data, and our computer could not function without it. There would be no World Wide Web, email or even an operating system without hard drives. Since hard drives are so important, a hard drive crash is without a doubt the biggest problem that someone could face on their computer.

Hard drive crashes can happen for many reasons, and usually the owner is not to blame. One reason your hard drive can crash is because of a hard ware problem. See your hard drive is a magnetic disc that spins and has an extended arm hovering over it, to access any area, and collect the data. If the motor overheats and stops spinning or the arm fails to function, then your hard drive will crash and not be accessible at all.

Another way for your hard drive to crash is from corrupt system files, registry files and viruses. Viruses come in many forms as spy ware, ad ware, in emails and many other places all over the web. I recommend a good virus protection program from McAfee or Norton to stop those viruses and prevent your hard drive from crashing.

Now let’s say your hard drive has crashed, how do you determine the problem and can it be fixed? Well determining whether the hard drive crash is mechanical of software related is actually pretty easy. The flashing light on front of your computer case, that blinks when the computer is busy, is a good tool to determine the problem. If you see the LED light flashing, but the computer will not boot up, then most likely it is a software related problem, which means an operating system glitch or a virus of some sort. Lucky for you this usually can be fixed and all of your files can be saved, but I recommend only letting a professional try and fix it since the average person might find it to difficult unless they have experience in formatting hard drives.

Worst case scenario is if you don’t see the LED light flashing in the front of your computer case, this means your hard drive has not activity which basically means it is a mechanical problem. A mechanical problem in your hard drive can be fixed, but I imagine it is pretty expensive. It is cheaper to get a new hard drive then to fix it, but of course if you have important data stored on the broken hard drive that you must get back, then you really have no choice but to have a professional fix it. You local computer store should have the expertise to repair it, but if not just ask them who can.

I should point out also though, that advanced hardware and software standards in today’s hard drives tell you when your drive is about to crash and gives you time to back up your important files.

Overall, the best way to stop your hard drive from crashing is to not neglect it and take care of it. The most important care tip is to make sure you defragment your hard drive at least once a month. Your operating system should come with a defragmenting program that is easy to use. Performing a defragment on your hard drive basically takes your data and organizes it into more convenient places so that the mechanical arm can access data faster and with the least amount of movement.

Another way to protect your hard drive from crashes is to purchase a good virus scanner, preferably by McAfee or Norton, and keep protection tools enabled and perform a full system scan of every file on your hard drive once a month.

Some other minor precautions that you can take are to enforce a SPAM guard on your emails and delete your temporary internet files every once in awhile. You should also keep your operating system up to date by downloading updates for it as soon as they come out. Windows makes this easy, but I am not sure how easy other operating systems make this or if they even provide this option.

If you are a person who downloads a lot of files from the internet, then you need to exercise caution in what you choose to download, as hard drive crashes are commonly associated with faulty software from unknown sources on the net.

Of course the best way to save you a headache if a hard drive crash happens is to back up your data regularly. Data loss is the reason a hard drive crash is so hurtful, so if you back up your data daily or whenever you work on it, then if a crash happens you will have no sweat on your back. I recommend you save your files to a rewritable CD/DVD or floppy disc as soon as you get done working on it, especially if the data is business related.

Copyright 2006 Michael Cottier

Michael Cottier has upgraded and repaired hard drives for many years. Learn from his experience and do it yourself at: http://www.computer-customizing-guide.com/hard-drive-upgrade.html

There can be a power surge and outages at any time, which can cause you to lose unsaved data and important items on your computer. This can be frustrating and in some cases devastating. There are ways to protect your computer from power related disasters. All you have to do is get a UPS battery; this will be the best way to protect not only your computer but also your sanity if you use a computer quite often.

A UPS battery is a device that keeps your computer running with power in the event of a power interruption. To do this put a battery that provides power to your computer or other important electronics. When you loose power to your computer, UPS batteries will provide power to you for a short time to enable you to save the data you were working on at that time. You will usually have about fifteen to twenty minutes to complete the saving and shut down your computer properly.

If you have business documents and information on your computer, it is essential that you have one of these batteries hooked up to your computer. Not only will a UPS battery protect your computer from power outages, it will also help with power surges. Surges can harm your computer and do a lot of damage. It should make you feel better knowing a backup battery is protecting your computer.

UPS batteries are not expensive at all. They usually run anywhere from thirty to fifty dollars for a good one. You can buy these batteries almost anywhere. They are defiantly an investment to anyone who lives on their computer. It does not matter if you have business or personal information on your computer; it is worth saving with a UPS battery.

They are compact so that they will fit almost anywhere. You can have them under your desk, or on top of it. UPS batteries will plug into a normal three-prong outlet. They are reliable and safe for most home electrical systems. There is really no reason not to have a battery backup and surge protector like a UPS battery hooked up to your computer. It will be a device that you may never need to rely on, buy why take the chance? It is worth the few dollars to save your precious work.

For more information on the batteries, please visit =>http://www.rechargable-nimh-batteries.info

If I asked you the question: which part of your computer is the most fragile, what would you say? What if I asked: which part is most important to you?

Often, the answer to both of these questions is your Hard Drive.

Your hard drive is likely one the most important things you own. It contains work data, school data, emails, photos, music, movies, tax information, etc… Incidentally, the hard drive is also one of only two moving components in your computer (the other being your optical drive). The following is a list of important maintenance and monitoring techniques you can use to maximize the life of your hard drive and prevent data loss.

Hard drives are physically fragile – handle with care
Statistics show that 25% of lost data is due to a failure of a portable drive. (Source: 2001 Cost of Downtime Survey Results) Contrary to its seemingly rugged appearance, your hard disk is a very delicate device that writes and reads data using microscopic magnetic particles. Any vibration, shock, and other careless operation may damage your drive and cause or contribute to the possibility of a failure. This is especially relevant for notebook users, as they are most at risk of drive failure due to physical damage, theft, and other causes beyond their control. That’s why we recommend regular backup of notebook hard drives, as often as possible. Possible solutions include external USB or Firewire drives (although these are prone to the same risks), desktop synchronization, or backup at a data center through the web.

Hard drives write data in a non-linear way forcing it to become fragmented.
When files accumulate on your hard drive, they do not just get written in a linear fashion. A hard drive writes files in small pieces and scatters them over the surface. The fuller your hard drive becomes and the more files you save and delete the worse file fragmentation can be. Hard drive access times increase with fragmentation since your drive must work harder to find all the pieces of the files. The more fragmented your data is, the harder the actuator arm has to work to find each piece of a file.

A case in point:
Disk fragmentation is a common problem for users of Outlook Express and database software. Each time outlook saves new mail, it does so in a different physical location from the previous time. This results in extreme fragmentation, causing longer hard drive access times and forcing more strain on the heads. This strain can eventually lead to a head crash, and often that means a virtually unrecoverable drive.Finally, in the event of a total crash, a fragmented drive is much more difficult to recover then a healthy defragged drive.

Luckily, Windows makes it remarkably easy to defrag your hard drive, simply launch the Disk Defragmenter utility (Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools), choose which disk or partition you’d like to defragment and set it to work overnight or while you are not actively using your computer. Defragmentation will speed up your computer and ensure a longer life for your hard drive.

A very small power surge can fry a hard drive – use a UPS and turn off your computer when you can
Another little-known fact about the fragility of your hard drive is its susceptibility to electrical failure. An electrical failure can be caused by a power surge, lightening strikes, power brown-outs, incorrect wiring, a faulty or old power supply, and many other factors. If a power surge enters your computer, it may do an unpredictable amount of damage, including destroying your hard drive’s electronics or crashing the heads and possibly resulting in total data loss.

The best way to protect your computer from such dangers is to use a highly rated protected power bar or an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Although these devices won’t eliminate the chances of a crash, they will serve as effective protection in most cases. Also, you can minimize the danger of an electrical problem and reduce wear of your hard drive by turning off your computer or using power-save modes whenever possible. It’s a known fact that 100% of drives fail, the question is when will it happen and will you be prepared? Make sure to check out the knowledgebase section of our website for more detailed information on how electrical power affects your computer.

Be SMART, monitor the health of your drive to prevent unexpected crashes
All modern hard drives have a self-monitoring technology called SMART (Self Monitoring Analysis & Reporting Technology). What most people don’t realize is that the majority of hard drive failures do not have to be unexpected. Most failures occur as a result of long-term problems which can be predicted. By regularly monitoring disk health and performance, you can know about potential hard drive problems before you lose any of your data.
Several excellent utilities are available, including DiskView and Stellar SMART for standard IDE and SATA desktop drives. Also available are tools that monitor the health of SCSI drives and full RAID Array systems. Ariolic Software offers a great utility called ActiveSMART.

The only fool-proof way to prevent data loss is… Backup!
If you only take one of the suggestions here to heart, let it be this one: always back up your important data. After all the monitoring and all the prevention measures are in place, one fact still remains: all hard drives fail. Backing up regularly will ensure that you’re never caught without your critical data. For individuals, the simplest solutions include external portable hard drives, dvd’s, and online storage. For businesses, we recommend renting space at a secure data centre and implementing a disaster recovery plan, regardless of the size of your business.
I hope that the above techniques give you some idea of the importance of hard drive maintenance and provide some insights in how you can protect yourself from data loss.

Alex Bezborodov is the technical writer for Accurate Data Recovery, specializing in data recovery for end users, academia and small businesses. Check out the ADR Resource Center for more useful information.
Let ADR bring your data back to life!

Its amusing how pc users the world over are mortified of losing data by a virus attack but don’t care much about backing up files. Though the intention is the same – to save data, people are concerned more about virus attacks rather than having back up program.

Saving files in a separate floppy, CD or even a different pc is known as back up of files. In the event of a data loss, it can be recovered if its saved elsewhere. What and how much to back up is completely an individual choice. Normally, data of importance like financial records, tax statements, personal files and anything that is important to a person should have a back up. The Back up worthiness of a file is the value of the file itself. Back up takes, so little time yet saves precious money, time and energy.

A simple back up solution for your files is – attach all your files to your email box. If your pc loses data due to whatever reason, you can still access all your files from any other pc that has an Internet connection. Simple, all it requires is your willingness. The next methods are to save your data in to a floppy or a CD. However, these act only as short-term data stores as they are not immune to getting blighted. Storing even an average file would require lots of floppies. Therefore, the best long term back up option is to store data in zip drive or tape drive. This then mandates checking of the tape at least periodically for quality that might deteriorate with the passage of time.

Windows utilities offer a back up facility. While installing Windows XP, Ntbackup.msi, a back up program of Windows utility, can be installed too. Unfortunately, Windows back up utility does not involve a third party and is done within the pc. So if data stored in a drive is lost, Windows back up fetches it back from another drive where its stored as back up. This saving exercise has to be performed religiously every week or so. Still Windows back up utility is not a safe back up option.

To solve this problem there are software utilities that cover back up automatically. Software utilities offer back up programs that back up files the moment they are saved in the pc. The back ups provided by software utilities are good for even complete hard drive failure. Disaster recovery and back up of open files are the features of some Software back up utilities.

Natalie Aranda writes about computer, and information technology and Internet security. While installing Windows XP, Ntbackup.msi, a back up program of Windows utility, can be installed too. Unfortunately, Windows back up utility does not involve a third party and is done within the pc. Software utilities offer back up programs that back up files the moment they are saved in the pc. Windows utilities offer a back up facility.

There can be numerous reasons why data file needs to be recovered. Similarly, data once lost can be retrieved by various methods. The options of computer data recovery are many that depend on the nature of data lost.

There is computer data recovery software to suit different kinds of data file recovery. There are computer data recovery software to restore deleted files; recover formatted hard drives even if Windows is reinstalled; recover files after the hard disk has crashed; get back files after partitioning errors; and recover documents, photos, music, video and email. To start with, let’s take a scenario where a file has been deleted from the recycle bin and needs to be recovered. For this undelete software is used that can restore the file immediately. Undelete software need to be used promptly to ensure efficient deleted file recovery. ‘File Recover’ and ‘O&O Unerase’ are such undelete software that does the work for deleted file recovery.

System Restore program is a file recovery software in Windows latest version like Millennium and XP that is helpful in restoring system files. If updating, installing or deleting a system file goes wrong and there is a need to go back to the original state then system restore program helps. System Restore is not a very effective file recovery program. It’s more like ctrl+z operation when you are typing/editing something.

File recovery programs can be run to retrieve zip, PDF, AutoCAD, PhotoShop and Tax files. Data recovery drives may be run to recover data from zip disks, CD-ROMs and Flashcards. Data recovery drives may trace lost files to FAT (File Allocation Table) and MFT (Master File Table) where information about all the files in the PC is contained. File recovery program searches old FAT and MFT partition records to rebuild the file structure.

O&O Disk Recovery is a file recovery software that is used for difficult data file recovery. Of the number of tricks the data recovery drives employ to recover data from formatted commands, searching for deleted directory entries is one. Files are actually never wiped off the computer unless they are over written by another file. By searching the clusters in the hard disk, file recovery software can recover any type of lost file. A good data recovery drive will not always search via the MFT route and look for unallocated clusters for data file recovery. From recovering files from a logical level to hard disks, computer data recovery software allows no reason to panic.

Natalie Aranda writes about information technology. There is computer data recovery software to suit different kinds of data file recovery. There are computer data recovery software to restore deleted files; recover formatted hard drives even if Windows is reinstalled; recover files after the hard disk has crashed; get back files after partitioning errors; and recover documents, photos, music, video and email.

You Have 50GB Of Data To Move Along With Permissions Security
———————
This article is about several tools that can save a Windows administrators you know what in the event of a large scale permissions security problem.

Here is a fictional scenario we can use to illustrate the use of the XCACLS tool. We need to move or copy 50GB worth of data that is comprised of several thousand directories containing hundreds of thousands of small files from one storage system to another. These systems happen to part of a Windows 2000 Domain and permissions are quite granular in definition. We start the replication of that data using a favorite replication or synchronization tool and walk away for the evening. When we return the next day, everything has copied and all looks well. That is until you try to access the data.

The Data Is Copied, But I Cannot Access It: Permissions Security Problem
———————
What you did not know, until just now, is that the root directory of the drive that you copied the data to had the wrong permissions assigned to it. In addition, inheritance was configured such that any data that is placed on the drive is over written with the permissions of the root directory. In this case, it was an old account that no longer existed. Believe it or not, that can happen, and system administrators will know what I am talking about. Now you are left with trying to figure out what to do. Do I format the new drive, change the permissions and inheritance on the root directory so they are correct and start all over again? Do I make the changes on the root drive so they have the correct permissions and wait hours upon hours for the permissions to propagate? No, there is another, very fast way of resolving this issue with XCACLS or another tool called SUBINACL.

XCALCS Quickly Resets Permissions On Directories And Files
———————
Becasue I have limited space in this article, I am going to use XCACLS as the tool to correct this problem. However, in complex permissions structures, you will most likely want to use SUBINACL to fix the issue. I will talk about SUBINACL briefly at the end of the article.

XCACLS as a very fast tool that can set, remove, add, and change permissions on files and directories. For intance, the following command replaces all existing access rights and accounts with that of "dmiller" on the file "file.txt" with read-only access: "xcalcs file.txt /Y /T /G domaindmiller:r". Although that is pretty easy and helpful, what about changing all my directories and files, which I have thousands of, to allow the domaindmiller account to have full access? To do this in a very fast fashion you could execute the following from the root directory of the drive: "for /d %g IN (*.*) DO xcacls "%g" /Y /T /G domaindmiller:f". This will go through every directory, subdirectory, and file and replace the current permissions with dmiller having full access to the object. You’ll notice I put "" around the %g in the example. This is not required, but if you have directories that have names with spaces in them you will need to have the "".

What Other Ways Can I Use XCACLS To Change Security Permissions
———————
To give you a few additional handy examples of how you can use this tool take a look at the follow command prompt methods for replacing, updating and removing accounts and permissions from large numbers of directories and files.

The following command replaces all existing access rights an accounts with that of dmiller with read only access rights: for /d %g IN (*.*) DO xcacls "%g" /Y /T /G domaindmiller:r

The following command does not replace existing account permissions, instead, it adds the account, in the example the local admin account, with read only permissions: for /d %g IN (*.*) DO xcacls "%g" /Y /E /T /G administrator:r

The following command removes the account "administrator" permissions from all directories, files, and subdirectories: for /d %g IN (*.*) DO xcacls "%g" /Y /E /T /R administrator

This command should update all the directories and their contents to allow Domain Admins full access: for /d %g IN (*.*) DO xcacls "%g" /Y /T /G "Domain Admins:f"

I did a test on my XP Pro workstation and was able to change the permissions on approximately 10000 directories and files in less 1 minute. On one of my servers I was able to achieve a 500% increase in speed. It is blazingly fast.

SUBINACL Is More Complex But Man Can It Really Save The Day
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I cannot go into specifics about this tool in this article but I will tell you what it can do. And again, it does it very very fast. Using the same scenario as above, let’s say that you had to fix the permissions on thousands of home directories. With SUBINACL, you can actually go to the original directories and files, use the tool to create what is called a "play file", a text file that contains the right account and permissions from the source files, then use that same file to tell SUBINACL to fix the permissions on the target storage system, the one with the screwed up permissions. It’s quite the life saver if you ever find yourself in the type of predicament.

Also check out "CACLS". This command is inherent to Windows XP Professional.

Conclusion
———————
These tools are contained in the Windows 2000 and 2003 server resource tool kit, however several of them also exist native to the Windows XP environment. Check them out if you don’t already know about them. Even if you have no use for them right now it may save you hours of hard work and stress in the event of a future permissions problem.

You may reprint or publish this article free of charge as long as the bylines are included.

Original URL (The Web version of the article)
———————
http://www.defendingthenet.com/NewsLetters/XCACLS-SUBINACL-AndOtherPermissionSecurityRecoveryTools.htm

About The Author
———————
Darren Miller is an Information Security Consultant with over seventeen years experience. He has written many technology & security articles, some of which have been published in nationally circulated magazines & periodicals. If you would like to contact Darren you can e-mail him at Darren.Miller@defendingthenet.com. If you would like to know more about computer security please visit us at http://www.defendingthenet.com.

Yesterday I had to change my hard drive and had a few issues that I was able to fix.

The problems started in the morning when my wife called me and told me that the computer would not boot. We have been having trouble with our hard drive for a while now and I was able to fix each time by just reseting the PC. This time though the computer was not seeing the hard drive. Using tools and knowledge that I had I had to do the following:

Install new hard drive
First of all I had to install the new hard drive. I was able to do this by disconnecting my CDR and leaving myDVD drive, two old hard drives in the machine, plus a new 80 gig drive with a 16 meg cache. I was unsuccessful at loading Windows though as I kept getting an error as the Windows setup was starting, after loading the drivers I would get an error that it could not load the setup. I switched to my CDR from the DVD drive and had no problems.

Setup Windows
I successfully did a quick format of the new drive (thanks for that new feature Windows XP) and successfully loaded Windows XP although now I have my operating system on the E drive.

Rebuild hard drive partition table
After I booted to Windows I saw that my old drive was not showing up as a drive or a partition. If I reight clicked on the partition in disk Management it knew that the drive existed but could no longer find a partition on it. Windows Disk Management said that the drive was healthy, My first attempt was to create a partition but not to format the partition as I did not want to lose the data for good. I fought with this for a couple of hours as I did not back up lately and the wife would kill me if I lost all of her data. In the end I was able to use Test Disk from the Filesystem tools of the Dos Ultimate Boot Disk. It ends up that the partition table had a start but not an end and the program was able to fix this….whew I would have been in trouble….

Migrate Windows and Office data
After I had the old drive back I went into the BIOS and chose to boot from that drive. I was able to boot to the old Windows XP installation easily enough and did not want to keep any of the data there but thought it would be a good idea to transfer my Windows settings using the file and settings transfer wizard in Windows. I saved the settings using the wizard and chose this as the old computer and in the destination I chose a folder I created on the new hard drive called “transfer files”. I then decided to transfer only my settings as I knew that I was going to have to reload my software and would be manually copying over the file structure from the old drive to the new drive.

I also moved all of my settings for MS Office using the Save my settings wizard from the MS Office 2003 tools section. I was able to copy the settings, which come across as an OPS file to the same place as my Windows Transfer Files and Settings.

After I had moved the settings and files over I rebooted and went back into the BIOS and changed my first boot to the new hard drive and it’s windows XP installation. I was very happy to see that after running the wizrds for transfering the settings and after reloading MS Office 2003 I was able to move over my mail folder and saw all of my email, contacts, and best of all my email addresses (Still had to fill in the passwords for email but that’s OK). After a relogon I also had all of my desktop settings back includig the background picture of my daughter and the animated Pingu cursors.

Copy data from bad drive
Next I just did a blanket move of all of the files from the old hard drive to new into a new folder that I created in the root of the drive. I did this simply to save time as I am not sure about the stability of the old hard drive and fear that I will lose it again.

Reload software
I have started reloading software but as usual I am going to be slow about the move this time. I will install some of my favorite freewares and will install Streets and Trips, Adobe Acrobat, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop Elements and that’s it.

I have roughly followed about half of my Reloading Windows tutorial but since I have both drives functioning at the moment I have tried to cut some corners and make this work well as well as getting my wife up and running quickly for her work stuff this morning.

Bill Nadraszky is a Systems Analyst and runs several websites. For more Computer information you can visit Computer News. To start a computer support business you can visit XP Tech Support

With apologies to Lennon and McCartney, you may have seen this parody of their song “Yesterday” regarding backups..

Yesterday,
All those back-ups seemed a waste of pay.
Now my source files have all gone away.
Oh I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly,
There’s not half the files there used to be,
And there’s a milestone hanging over me.
The system crashed so suddenly.

I pushed something wrong
What it was I could not say.
Now all my data’s gone
and I long for yesterday-ay-ay-ay.

Yesterday,
The need for back-ups seemed so far away.
I knew my data was all here to stay,
Now I believe in yesterday.

Although the parody is clever, anyone who has lived through the loss of data and the enormous amount of time wasted trying to recover valuable information doesn’t feel very clever after the fact. If this hasn’t happened to you and you are still not performing back-ups then be warned, it is only a matter of time.

So unless you want to be singing this sad refrain you need to back up your data.

There are a number of options available for you:

A second hard disk - If you install a second drive that is the same size as your existing disk you can copy or “mirror” the data onto the second drive. Although the price of hard disks is falling and mirroring disks is relatively easy, having all your data on one machine leaves you vulnerable to any issues that render that computer unusable, including theft.

Recordable Media - Computers are now being shipped without floppy disk drives and even if they were still included the amount of data that is being backed up is too much for these to be of any value. The next level up from floppy disks, Zip disks, has now given way to recordable CDs (CD-Rs), and recordable DVDs (DVD-Rs). CD-Rs can hold up to 700 MB of data and DVD-Rs can hold up to 8.5 GB. Depending upon the size of the data that you want to back up these may be acceptable, however you could end up spending a lot of time burning an increasing number of disks as the size of your data increases.

Tape Back-Up – data is written onto a tape. The amount of data on a tape can vary from hundreds of kilobytes to several gigabytes. Just as the amount of data can vary, so can the speed of transfer. Online back-up services allow you to upload your data over the internet to a server at a remote location. If you lose data and need to restore, you log onto the back-up service site and download your files. Because you are restoring over the Internet, backup and restoration speed can be a function of your connection speed. Of course you will need to have Internet access to restore. Some companies are still wary of having all of their business data residing on a machine that is not under their control.

Software back-up programs like the one that comes bundled with WindowsXP, or that can be purchased separately ( Norton ) are not replacements for the other methods, however, they do automate the process by sending your data to the location that you choose.

Once you have decided on you method of back-ups there are a few other items that you need to think about as well. What do you back-up? how often and where do you store the data? Who in your organization is responsible for making it happen?

It is best to have a back-up done every day of your most important files. You may even copy these more often if the amount and value of the data warrants it.

Three different back-up types that you should be familiar with are:

A Full Back-up, like the name implies, contains all the files and folders that are to be backed up. This is the most complete, and the easiest back-up to restore from due to the fact that everything you need is included (if done properly). The reason this in not usually done every time is the amount of time it takes to do. You need to be aware that if this back-up was accessed it would have all of your data on it, so it is imperative that these are handled with care. These are often stored in a secure location off site in case something happens to the building.

A Differential Back-up contains files that have changed (are different) from the time of the last full back-up.

An Incremental Back-up stores all the files that have changed since the last back-up whether that is a full, differential or incremental back-up. This back-up is completed the fastest, however restoring from a number of incremental back-ups will take longer than restoring from a full back-up.

Most companies use a combination of full, differential and incremental back-ups in an effort to balance the data security with the amount of time invested in the process. No matter which of the options you choose, it is important to know that you do not have a back-up solution until you have successfully restored your data from the back-up. I know of a person who faithfully performed back-ups every day. When the computer crashed and it was time to restore, this person was crushed to learn that the only thing that was being backed up was the icon to the program. Once again, until and unless you have successfully restored from your back-up solution, you do not have a solution.

Jim Hawkins works at Windward Software, developers of Point of Sale software, and, among other things, is responsible for worrying about things like data back-ups and running out of coffee.