Backup, Backup and BACKUP

If there is one compelling reason for me to create this blog, it's to try to convince people to back up their computers.  I've discovered that most people regard backing up as an unnecessary endeavor.  Those same people usually end up telling me, "There's nothing on my computer that I really need."  And I don't want to push the issue, but if you are one of those people, please allow me to at least give you something to think about.

Obvious Items for Backup
Everyone always thinks about the "big" items which we all agree would be a great loss if they were to be lost.  Things like:

• Finance records
• Important documents
• Family photos
• Work files
• E-Mail

These items are usually what people worry about in the back of their minds when someone like me talks about backing up their computer.

Not-So-Obvious Items for Backup
Your computer has been programmed to try to remember your favorite things.  Examples of these are:

• Your desktop
• Your Internet favorites
• Settings of all the programs on your computer.  Most people can get by if these were lost

These not-so-obvious items are usually not critical, but if you were to have to recover from a loss of data, seeing an unfamiliar desktop and having to train all of your programs all over again can be a big pain.  So even if you can't think of any of the obvious items above for encouraging you to think about backing up, maybe these not-so-obvious items might compel you.

What is Backing Up?
Sadly, there are a good deal of people who think backing up is something hard or impossible for them to do.  But, what is backing up really?  It's the same thing you do with your real files.  I was in the military and one of the most important documents from my military service is what is known as the DD214.  This document records what you did, what awards you earned and under what circumstances you were discharged from the military.  So, it's very important, and basically, I have about 10 paper copies of this document.  In comparison, a computer backup is just a copy of your files.  How you get that copy and when you do it is obviously just as important.  If you lost your financial data, and the most recent copy you had was from 6 months ago, then, in my opinion, it would be just as bad as if you hadn't made a copy at all.  So, backing up could be something as simple as copying your files to a thumb drive or CD or DVD.

What to Back Up?
Well, above I mentioned some of the items you'd want to back up.  But another situation I have found is that there is another group of people who don't know where to find the files on their computer in order to back them up.

Backup Software To The Rescue
This is where backup software comes in.  Most backup software already knows where you keep your files - like in My Documents, and other locations.  And most backup software is easy to use.  A click of a button and its off and running.  Or it'll ask you what time it can run at night when you're not using your computer.  I'm not going to go on and on with all the different software available for backing up.  I don't have the time, nor am I interested in doing a side-by-side comparison.

What I Do (For What it's Worth)
I'd like to tell you what I do to back up my computer, and you can form your own opinions on the matter.  I use software called Carbonite.  I really like this software because it runs on auto-pilot and runs in the background, or in other words, it operates without me knowing about it.  Whenever it hits a file that it hasn't backed up, it encrypts the file and sends it to a secure location on the Internet.  I don't have to worry about copying to CD or a thumb drive.  As good as it is, however, Carbonite cannot really restore my computer to it's former glory if my hard drive were to fail for whatever reason.  I would still have to make the appropriate hardware repairs, install Windows again and then restore my files from Carbonite.  And that process would be rather slow.  But at least nothing would be lost! 

A further method I use is to do a frequent backup of my hard drive using Windows Backup, which is a part of Windows 7.  This backup method asks me to copy it to some sort of external hard drive.  My preferred drive is a Firewire-connected external hard drive.  I always choose to make a full copy of my computer with this method.  And, conveniently, if I had to restore from that method, it's a matter of booting my computer with my Windows 7 DVD and then choosing the restore option.  After Windows writes the files back on my repaired hardware from the backup on that external backup drive - "Voila!" I reboot and it's like nothing ever happened.  I know this from experience, because it has happened to me more than once.

Get Into the Habit
Backing up isn't such a mysterious thing.  It's just a habit that needs to be developed.  Trust me, you may think there isn't anything you need on your computer, but there is always that "Oh NO!" moment when you remember that you kept all of your passwords on some notepad text file that is now gone because you thought you didn't need to do a backup.   Speaking of passwords - that's the subject of my next blog entry.  Stay tuned.

Anyone want to share a backup horror story? Or rather a lack-of-backup story?