How To Backup Your System
We all know that we should back up our system as soonas possible.But if you're like most of us,you will get to ittomorrow.The problem is that tomorrow rarely ever comesuntil you experience a serious computer failure and thenits too lake.
Taking the time to backup your data or entire hard drive is not as painstaking as it may seem.And the rewards ofdoing so will be great should your system experience acrash.
WINDOWS AND OTHER BACKUP SOFTWARE
If you have Windows XP you willl need to install the newWindows backup ultility from the Windows XP cdrom.Justplace the WinXP cdrom in your cdrom drive and locatethe line D:\VALEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP.
Here you see the first letter as D but if your optical drivehave a different drive letter,exchange the D with your drive's letter.To install the utility,click on the file namedNTBackup.msi.
The backup utility will be installed to the system tools group.Click Start,All Programs,Accessories,SystemTools,and Backup.There is a neat wizard that will walkyou through the backup process.
WinXP's backup utility will backup your entire harddrive and will make a recovery disk to boot.
One neat third party backup software you can try isNewTech InfoSystems at http://www.ntius.com whereyou can download their trial version and put it to usefor 30 days.And if its your cup of tea,the full versionwill run you about $79.95
INCREMENTAL OR DIFFERENTIAL BACKUPS
You should back up your entire hard drive when youperform your first backup.After that it is best to performan Incremental backup.This type of backup only allowyou to backup files that have changed since your lastperformed backup.
Differential Backups copy changed files and files thathave been added since you last did your entire backup.This type of backup is more detailed than incrementalbackups and is easier to restore.
BACKUP STORAGE DEVICES
You can backup your files on cdroms and have the filescompressed to save both space and backup time.WinXPwill compress folders,subfolders,and files during backup.
You can purchase compression software that will do thesame saving you cdrom storage space.The compressedfiles are automatically uncompressed once they are restored unto your hard drive.
You can also use a second hard drive as your backupstorage device.
You can either purchase an internal hard drive in installit to your ide cable or you may want to purchase anexternal hard drive that connects to your Universal SerialBus or USB Port.
The advantage of the external drives is that they have verylarge amount of storage space,transfer data fast,and canbe moved from your computer to any other computer.
USING ONLINE BACKUP SERVICES
You may also consider online services for backing upyour data.If you lose all your backup data,say due it anatural dissaster such as a flood,your online data is right there waiting for you.
Another advantage of online backups is that you canaccess,upload,or download your data from any location.It is best to use high speed internet access if you'reconsidering online data storage.
One such online backup service is Istorage located athttp://www.iomega.com/istorage and charges from$2.49 a month for 50MBs to $17.95 a month for a big1,000MBs of storage.
Or you can check out FilesAnywhere located at the urlhttp://www.filesanywhere.com
Still another online service to try is CapSure located athttp://www.capsure.com
Backup your system now in one way or another if youhave not done so.If you have critical data that you simplycannot due without,take the time to invest in a backupdevice or one of the many online backup services.
Stop and perform those backups as soon as possible.You will be thankful you did should something go wrongwith your computer.Its always better to be safe than sorry.