The easiest way to lose your documents, letters, databases, pictures, songs and other important files is to never back them up. Then, when your computer experiences a catastrophic failure, you can simply bid adieu to your files and get on with your life.
The term “backup” refers to making a copy of something, so that if the original suffers damage, you have another copy to take its place. If there is anything on your computer that cannot be easily recreated or replaced, then you need to have working copies of those items that can be called upon when needed. Computer catastrophes happen. You need backups.
Last week, I was the unfortunate computer guy that had to inform a customer that I could not retrieve any files from their wrecked computer. The computer had suffered a power surge during one of the massive lightning storms that occurred a few weeks ago. It was a rare occurrence for me, but I used every trick in the book without success. The computer’s hard drive was simply dead. The customer had no backups. Scores of precious family photos were gone. She could have sent the hard drive to a specialized (and very expensive) computer forensics and data recovery lab, and spent many hundreds to many thousands of dollars to get her pictures back. For most people, though, this type of hard-core data recovery is not an option.
Currently on my workbench is the hard drive from another computer that took a hit during a storm. Again, the customer did not have any files backed up. This time, I’ll have a happy customer, as I have been able to read and copy the drive’s contents, which I’m doing as I write this article. The computer itself is fried, but the hard drive is fine. Folder after folder of irreplaceable photos, emails and documents has been saved from oblivion.
The easiest way to backup your files is by copying them to an external hard drive. External hard drives are cheap. For somewhere around $100 you can buy an external hard drive with enough capacity to store a ridiculously large number of files. Just plug the drive into a USB port and start copying. Many external drives come with special backup programs that make copying files as easy as pushing a button. Some will even perform automated backups set to run at a predetermined time. You should never need to pay list prices for external hard drives. Check the flyers from electronics stores that come with the Sunday newspaper and buy something that’s on sale.
A less expensive option is to backup your files to CDs or DVDs. CDs and DVDs are cheap, too, with packs of 100 frequently on sale for around $20. Twenty cents per disk is cheap insurance. While Windows has utilities installed for backing up files to removable disks, it’s a little clunky to use. The easiest way to do these types of backups is by using a CD or DVD burning program. Many computers have these programs already installed. Some people like Easy Media Creator by Roxio. My favorite is a program called Nero. However, these programs will cost some money, and may be overkill for some users. Areca Backup (http://areca/sourceforge.net) is a powerful backup program that also happens to be free. One cool feature about Areca is that it lets you encrypt your backed up files, protecting them from prying eyes.
Another option is to use online backup service, which lets you use the Internet to store backups at a remote site. After all, an external backup hard drive does you no good if it is destroyed by the same disaster that takes out your main computer. One of the most popular backup services is Mozy (www.mozy.com). For $5 a month per computer, you can backup all the files that you like, plus, it also does regularly scheduled backups.
Finally, all computers and their external devices, including cable/DSL modems, routers, etc., should be plugged into a good surge-protected battery backup unit, also known as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). Good UPS units start at around $60 on sale. Again, this is cheap insurance. It’s stupid to lose a $1500 computer just because you don’t want to spend a few dollars to protect against power surges. Forget those silly little surge-protector strips; get the real thing. It’s also stupid to lose important files just because you don’t want to spend a little time and twenty cents on a DVD; isn’t it?