theirs.
Backing up data is kind of like the desire to exercise more even though your
heart is just not into it---the intentions are good, and occasionally you do
it, but it really never becomes a task you do consistently. Speak for
myself, right? Well, I am.
In a business environment, it's a no-brainer---the IT department worries
about such things. However, at home who's going to care? Let me paint a
picture.
Fewer than 1 out of 10 people backup their data regularly
The home user is primarily a careless user---let's call him Fred. Fred is
willing to spend "some" money on data security, but very little time. He
relies on third party applications and defunct hardware solutions to handle
the unpleasant task of keeping his data safe. However, Fred doesn't realize
that it's not money that will set him free from this responsibility, it's
his initial time.
Strategy
Fred needs a backup strategy. Like exercise, if Fred can overcome that
initial pain and investment, the effort will eventually pay off. Okay, so
Fred realizes that he needs a strategy. Big deal, that's simple---he backs
up everything and he's covered.
Rather than try to figure out how Fred really feels about his data, I'll
just outline my current strategy. Keep in mind that until you lose
everything, you can't really appreciate the value of having a strategy at
all. I'll humor those who need a laugh then...
Step#1
What data is important to me?
Digital photos. If my computer died today, I'd ask myself what would be the
hardest things to recover? The very first thing that came to my mind was
pictures---all those digital photos I've been storing on my hard drive for
the last three years. Memories are impossible to replace.
Money/Quicken files. I also do all my banking online now. I use MS Money to
help me keep track of my computer gadget purchases among other less
important stuff like the mortgage payment, water, gas, and telephone bills.
Several years of bank statements are also on my hard drive. If I lost this,
it would be painful but not as bad as my photos.
Docs and spreadsheets. I have a collection of documents and spreadsheets I
don't think I can replace easily. For example, several iterations of my
resume are stored on my hard drive along with that spread sheet I created on
the pros and cons of building or buying my next PC.
Email messages. I have literally thousands of email messages. If I lost
them, it certainly wouldn't be the end of the world, but there are a few I'd
like to keep. For example, my son's teacher used to correspond with his
mother and I via email. It would be nice if we could preserve these until
our boy grows up.
Wait, what about all the programs I have loaded, not to mention the very
software that runs all these programs? Gosh, I'm just not that worried about
them. I've got the original CDs right here. I can always reinstall them. In
fact, if my hard drive does crash, it might be a good time to do some spring
cleaning anyway. Half the applications installed on my system I don't even
use.
Step#2
How much space do I need?
As a general rule, I like to have twice as much space than I need. This will
provide me with room to grow. This is an important step because it will
ultimately determine the final hardware solution I use.
For example, if I only cared about my digital photos, I might be able to get
away with backing them up on CDRs or DVDRs. I could live with this solution,
but I fear I won't backup often enough. This, of course, leads into the next
step...
Step#3
How often do I need to backup?
I guess the real question is how much recent data am I willing to live
without? Clearly, if I only use my computer once a day for email and three
times a week for web surfing, then I don't need to be backing up every hour.
On the other hand, if I use my computer for business purposes, and I rely on
very timely data, then perhaps I need to be a little more careful how I
answer this. In my case, I want timely data.
In my last backup strategy (several months ago), I was a bit more lax. I
only backed up once a week. However, after I experienced my first real
system disaster (yes, it happens to the best of us), I realized that I had
lost a weeks worth of photos. Of course, it had to be the week my son
finished his soccer season, and I was designated to capture the trophy
ceremony. I still kick myself today for losing those photos, not to mention
disappointing all the other parents.
I needed timely backups---several times per day, in fact! You might think
this is a bit extreme, but you'll understand my strategy in a bit.
Step#4
What type of media do I use? There are certainly no lack of choices here.
There are Zip drives, Jazz drives, CDRs, DVDRs, Tape drives, Hard drives,
Floppy drives (Ooops, scratch that one), etc.
This decision will ultimately be determined by my backup space needs. In my
case, it was several gigabytes.
One serious options was DVDRs. This media can hold up to 4.7GB of data. This
would allow me to save an entire year of photos on one DVD. However, when I
looked at some of the "cons" involved, I decided against DVDR for now.
For example, the DVDR format is still not standardized. I just don't want to
invest in something I'll have to worry about supporting several years down
the road. Furthermore, DVDRs are still relatively expensive, not to mention
the $10 to $15 per blank DVD.
Zip, Jazz and CDR drives don't fulfill my needs either. They just don't have
the capacity. What inexpensive solution is left? Tape and hard drives seem
to be my only other choices. Bingo! I decided to use a combination of these
two technologies.
Step#5
What type of backup software do I use?
I struggled over this one for a long time. Again, there are tons of
different software packages written for this type of task. You could
literally spend thousands of dollars on backup software. I decided to spend
as little as possible and still feel like my data is safe.
I use Robocopy. Robocopy is a small Microsoft application that runs from the
command prompt. It's included with Windows 2000 resource kit, but I'm sure
it's available to anyone who searches for it---just do a google search on
"robocopy.exe".
Robocopy is a small but powerful utility.
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