Deciding What When and How to Backup

A Backup Article Contributed by Pearlyn Williams

Deciding What When and How to Backup

By now, most persons are aware of the importance of backing up their computer files regularly. However, the approach to backup may vary from person to person.

A clear understanding of the documents that are critical and the various backup methods that are available for use is the first step.

The Backup Plan

The next step is to identify which data is indispensable. It is usually not necessary to backup the programs that are loaded on your computer as the original CDs should normally be kept safely and readily available for reinstallation. It may also not be necessary to backup temporary documents that are normally stored in a temporary folder. Documents that are critical for backup should have some result in severe inconvenience to the individual or company if lost, and could include customer lists, accounting information, company manuals, theses, and so on.

As a general rule (especially when using Microsoft Office) documents for backup are by default stored in a folder named "My Documents". The general policy for persons using a computer system is that they should ensure that files ARE indeed saved in the "My Documents" folder.

Deciding on Backup Media

Deciding what media to use is also critical. Of course, what will be backed up, usually determines this next step. Generally speaking, if you have huge volumes of data you will have to use a tape drive, however, a regular backup can be done these days using CD-Rs or DVD-Rs.

Choosing the backup software is also important. Simply copying a file to a medium will not always be adequate. For reliable backup try getting good backup software. Most Microsoft Operating System software include useful backup tools that have proven useful. It's a good idea also to use such software to schedule regular backups at times that are most convenient.

When to Backup

There is a saying in the industry that you backup as often as you do not want to lose your data. Essentially, the decision is up to the user. One person might decide to back up at the end of every day, another at the end of every week. I suppose a good question to ask before making this decision is 'how often do I generate new information on my system? Whatever the decision, the key is to maintain the schedule.

So, if the decision is to backup Wednesdays and Fridays, and you choose to do a manual backup (instead of using a software to schedule it), label each backup medium with each day. At the end of the week, it is best to take the backup media off site for safe-keeping.

There are backup software that allow you to do incremental backups of your folders. Incremental backups copy only the files that have changed since the last full backup.

There are numerous stories of critical, even life-altering data being lost due to the oversight of the simple precaution of instituting an maintaining a backup plan when dealing with electronic data. This is sad when as shown above the process is quite simple.