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BACKING UP YOUR DATA

Eventually it will happen. Your hard drive will crash or you'll get a nasty virus or your child will 'accidently' format the machine. You may think it won't happen to you, but trust me, one day it will. Maybe it has already. Regardless, I can assure you that most people only let it happen ONCE. After that, they learn the lesson and make backups. If you've been lucky so far, I urge you to take heed of the lessons learned by others.

A quick note for business users who keep important data at work:
I can't stress the following enough... If you don't know how your data is stored at work, FIND OUT! I've seen this mistake made over and over at places I've worked in the past before I became a network administrator. Find out what the policy for data storage is, and abide by it. For most businesses, the machine at your desk is not being backed up. Anything not stored on your network share (GS) is at risk for loss if your hard drive starts making the dreaded click, click, click death knell. Make sure your email is backed up if it's important to you, especially at smaller companies, since they are less likely to have an email server. Don't store anything important on a machine that isn't being backed up, at home or at work.

So what are the options for backup? Well there are plenty. But some make will make more sense to you and your situation that others. Here's a quick rundown.

At work:

• Just find out the policy and put your data in the appropriate place. Then test the recovery by requesting some older version of a file from a week back or so. No admin should have a problem with this. It's standard fare to recover lost files. WARNING: Make sure you move the current copy before you make the request, or that version will likely be overwritten by the older recovered file.

At home:
• Internal or external tape drive using software you configure yourself
• Internal or External backup drive using software you configure yourself
• External backup drive using preconfigured software - these include 'one touch' drives (meaning you push a button)
• CDs/DVDs
• RAID array

Internal and external tape drive might be too expensive for most home users, especially now that other options have come on the market recently, such as the 'one touch' drives well discuss in a moment. The most common form of these can be thought of as mini VCR tapes - they're actually DAT (digital audio transfer) tapes, but they do the same thing as the VCR or cassette tape and are based on an update to that technology. They record data to the tape when you put them in a drive. They pop out when they're done. Once you configure the software - which is a separate purchase in most cases - it's a simple and efficient way to back up data. But cost and the software set up do get in the way. This is an excellent option if you have the money and skill (or know someone who does), but you may prefer the next option.

An internal or external backup drive with self or preconfigured software is a popular option these days. You either buy a spare hard drive and put it in your PC, or buy one that sits near your PC. The external version can be purchased from several manufacturer with a button (or a few) that you push to back up your entire drive. I've never used these myself, mostly because I want more control over what gets backed up and when, but I've heard good things from friends who are less technically inclined.

Another popular option is CD or DVD burning. I personally find it cumbersome to keep up with so many discs and often fail to do this type of backup at regular intervals. Plus, you wind up throwing away media often as you make new copies (if you're not using CD-RWs that can be reused), and you have to find a way to wipe the data securely (GS). Most backup software - another place to do some research on your own - comes with the ability to back up to CD or DVD. Microsoft OSes come with a backup option that has only a few features and is rather slow, but you own it already. You don't have to use backup software, but it's easier to track and recover data with it. CD and DVD burning software is required to burn anything, and may be good enough if you only have a few files to backup and don't mind the extra few minutes over the other options. More than 700MB will move you to DVDs (or multiple CD management), and then price can make this option less attractive in the long run.

Don't let the last one scare you. RAID - is an ancronym for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks - is really not that tough for home use if you've ever opened your computer and installed memory or a add-on card. Admittedly, it still is the toughest option to implement, but it is the most robust data protection option when set up correctly. All companies use some form of RAID to protect their data. There's a link to a great guide on the left of this page, which will explain why I said "some form of RAID."