The September 11th attacks last year brought an unexpected surge of business to some high-tech companies. High on the list of companies which benefitted were the makers of backup software.

The backup strategies employed by many companies are, to speak kindly, somewhat lacking. That is especially true of small outfits where there is no full-time system administrator. The World Trade Center disaster, which saw some companies lose their entire collection of data, brought it home to many organisations that their backup strategies were woefully inadequate. Hence the rush on backup software.

When it comes to poor backup practices, individual users are even less likely than small companies to safeguard their data. It often takes our own personal disaster to make us appreciate the importance of regular backups.

Why should I back up?

If you're thinking, "This doesn't apply to me, I don't have anything important on my computer", think again. How long did it take you to amass your collection of browser favourites? And how about the e-mail addresses and phone numbers in your contact list? Consider, too, the Desktop wallpapers or handy system utilities you've gradually collected over the past couple of years.

If you lost all this, how long would it take you to replace it? Would you, in fact, be able to rebuild what you'd lost?

Of course, most of us have a whole lot more to lose than Web links, contacts and some pretty pictures. If you use your computer for study or hobbies, chances are you have dozens of files whose loss would cause you grief. If you use it for work, losing your files could even jeopardise your livelihood.

Next time you think you can't be bothered to back up, consider the pain you'd feel if you suffered a sudden catastrophic loss of your data. After all, hard disks die, notebooks get stolen, offices burn to the ground, and every day people accidentally overwrite important files. Keep using a computer for long enough and I guarantee you something nasty will happen to your data.

What do I back up?

One of the reasons most of us get put off creating regular backups is the intimidating ratio of hard disk size to backup media size. Backing up that overflowing 40G hard drive to CD, Jaz, Zip, SuperDisk or, heaven forbid, floppy, is daunting. No doubt about it.

But the problem is illusory. For most of us, the vast majority of our disk space is consumed by things which don't need backing up: system files, applications, easily replaced media files and downloads, and already backed-up data.

For instance, on my 17G drive there are some 3.5 gigs of data I need to back up. Almost 2.5G of that is fairly static, so it only needs to be backed up once with an occasional refresher. And I store a lifetime's writing on my drive plus thousands of digital snaps, so I'm a real data hog.

If you take an inventory of your system, you're likely to find you have even fewer bytes that need backing up on a regular basis. Media files including photos, audio and video are usually the biggest space chompers. Unless you're into heavy audio and video editing, these files are mostly static, unlike oft-changing documents such as theses, budgets, e-mail and so on. So even though they consume a lot of space you can usually secure media files by doing a single massive backup then setting your backup software to backup only those files which have changed since the last backup (known in the trade as a differential backup).

The key thing about backing up your data is to make sure you keep tabs of all the data that matters and ensure it is all included in your backup regimen. That includes e-mails, contacts, favorites and so on, as well as documents and media files.

What equipment do I need?

To back up your data you need:

Backup software. You can, of course, create a backup simply by manually copying data, but that's inefficient and likely to lead to omissions in the long run. Some, but not all, versions of Windows include backup software (for instance, Windows XP Home Edition doesn't include a backup program, while XP Professional Edition does – a crazy omission on Microsoft's part). The MS Backup program, though, is limited and completely flummoxed by devices such as CD burners. I recommend you buy third-party software. My personal favourite is Centered System's Second Copy 2000, a bargain at around $60. If your budget won't run to that, try the freeware My Own Backup, which isn't nearly as easy to use, but is an improvement on the Microsoft-supplied utility.

Backup media. You can back up to floppy, removeable disks such as Zip and Jaz, CD-RW, tape, network drive, external hard drive, a second internal fixed drive, or even another section of your main hard drive.

The latter two are the least desirable options because if something goes wrong with your computer, chances are you'll not only be unable to access your data but you'll also not be able to get at your backup.

Nothing is more convenient than backing up to a network drive, but that means your backup lacks portability and it's vulnerable if the network drive is physically near your own PC (what happens in the event of a fire or theft, for instance?).

For most home and small office users, the easiest options are CD-RW or Zip or Jaz. When DVD burners become common and affordable, they'll make an excellent alternative. If you're dealing with very large quantities of data, you may want to invest in a high-capacity external hard drive (many of which require the addition of a 1394/Firewire or SCSI card) such as the 80G Maxtor Personal Storage 3000DV. Tape is a cheaper large-scale option, although it's cumbersome compared to portable drives.

How often should I back up?

To have an effective backup strategy, you need to decide whether to use full, differential or incremental backups (see the table for details about the advantage and disadvantage of each type), the appropriate backup frequency, and where to store your backups.

How often you create a backup depends on three key factors:

Home users can usually get by with a quarterly full backup and then weekly or even monthly differential backups. Business users should be looking at weekly and daily schedules, with multiple daily incremental backups in data-intensive environments.
If possible, you should keep one backup stored off-site in case a real catastrophe hits. You can store the other backup on-site, preferably in a fire-proof, waterproof container.

Geekgirl Technote: The archive attribute
In a differential backup, only those files which have been created or changed since the last full backup are included in the backup. But how does your backup software know which these files are?

Backup programs take advantage of the archive attribute on files. This is an identifier which can be set on or off to indicate whether a particular file has been backed up or not. If you right-click a file, select Properties from the pop-up menu and click the General tab, you'll see an Archive setting in the Attributes section. A tick (checkmark) in the Archive box indicates the file is new or changed and requires archiving. You can force a file to be included in the next differential backup by ticking its archive attribute.

A full backup clears the archive attribute of all files backed up. An incremental backup also clears the archive attribute on all files backed up. A differential backup leaves the archive bit untouched.

How do I do it?

Below, I'll step you through using MS Backup to create a backup. In the next article in this series (coming soon), I'll take you deeper into the nitty-gritty of backing up: How to keep tabs on all data you want backed up; how to organise your files to make backup easy; how to perform a backup using something better than MS Backup; and how to restore files when the originals get clobbered.

Step-by-step: Backup and restore with MS Backup

The backup utility included with Windows is not particularly flexible, but it will still get the job done. It comes pre-installed with Win 95 and 98; with Win Me you'll find it hidden on the Win Me CD in the \ADD-ONS\MSBackup\ folder, and you can install it by running Msbexp.exe from this folder; there's no utility provided with Windows XP Home Edition; and there's an enhanced  version included with Windows XP Professional. We'll focus on using the Windows 9x/Me version here.

1. To run MS Backup click Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Backup. The program uses a wizard-style approach which prompts you as you go. Don't bother backing up your whole system, instead be selective.

2. You can back up individual files and folders or entire disks by selecting them in the tree.

3. MS Backup doesn't support differential backups, but you can create incremental backups by telling it to back up new and changed files.

4. MS Backup won't recognise your CD burner as a valid backup destination when you first install it, but if you have created an Explorer-style read/write CD-RW (using a utility such as Roxio's DirectCD) you will be able to choose your burner as a backup destination when the time comes.

5. If you give your backup a descriptive name you'll be able to run it at any time by selecting it from the Backup Job list.

6. When it comes time to restore a backup, avoid the wizard which sometimes gets befuddled by CD-RW-based backups and instead do the job manually: Click the Restore tab, click the folder icon in the Restore From section and select the original backup destination (backups are stored in 'backup sets' with a QIC extension), and click the Refresh button to view the files and folders that were backed up. Use the tree to select a single file or the complete backup and restore it either to its original location or to an alternative folder.

© 2002, Rose Vines  

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