Hello and Welcome! I'll assume that you are visiting this post because you were searching for some advice on backing up your data. First let me introduce myself. My name is Scott and I'm a self-employed computer tech living and working in West Texas (Odessa, to be exact). I've been in the computer repair business for about ten years and I wouldn't trade my job for anything. Anyway, I'm glad you're here and I hope the information I'm posting will be of help to you.
I see it happen all the time with my home pc customers. Their computer, for whatever reason, has been rendered unbootable and they are suddenly (and understandably) worried about the contents of the hard drive. Whether it's hundreds (or thousands) of dollars worth of downloaded music and movies, software that was purchased and paid for online, countless hours of work on personal or business documents or the unthinkable loss of all their family photos, the sudden realization that you have never safeguarded these things can be a very unsettling prospect.
One of the first questions I ask when someone calls and tells me that their pc won't start is if they have a recent backup of their data. It's very rare for anyone to answer that question in the affirmative. Usually, after a moment of silence, the customer will sheepishly admit that they always intended to start backing up but never did because... [insert your favorite excuse here]. I always hate to hear this because backing up your data is vitally important and (here's the BIG SECRET) it's not at all difficult. There are backup utilities and services available to consumers now that make the process so simple and automated that anyone can do it easily and quickly. And the best part is, there are so many competing products you will easily find one to fit your budget if you shop around. One word of caution, though. Don't use the built-in backup utility in Windows. Yeah, I know, it's already there and it's "free". Trust me though, it's cumbersome, featureless and not very dependable. You won't like it so you won't use it and then the next time your hard drive crashes (it will happen), you won't have a backup. I've seen it happen too many times! Third party software is DEFINITELY the way to go.
I have a personal favorite called Backup4All that I use for all of the computers on my home network. There are lots of programs to choose from out there, and many of them are very good. The reasons that I chose Backup4All though, are simple: It's intuitive - meaning that it's very easy to navigate. It's Flexible - It gives you plenty of easy to understand options for backing up your data. It's very affordable - It's got the best feature to cost ratio of all the utilities that I've reviewed, and - It's dependable (this is my favorite feature!) - It even sends me an email if a scheduled backup fails and attaches a log that lets me know what the problem was! Now THAT'S peace of mind!
If you want to check it out, Click Here. A new browser window will open where you can download a free trial version and give it a test spin.
Anyway, the purpose of this article is to tell you What To Back Up, When To Back It Up, and Where To Back It Up To....so here we go!
First things first. Probably the number one reason that home PC users don't back up their data is that they simply don't have any idea of what to back up. The concept is pretty simple, though. The short answer is that you should back up anything you don't already have another copy of and don't want to lose. Easy enough, right? Well, maybe I should explain in a little more detail. There are some things on your PC that you don't need to bother backing up. For the sake of this article, I'm going to assume you are running Windows XP or Vista. Here's a list of things you DON'T need a backup of:
Don't bother backing up Windows: Whether you bought your PC with Windows pre-installed or you bought a retail version of the operating system, you already have a copy of the re-installation media. If your PC came from one of the BIG BOYS like Dell or HP, you likely received a set of disks Labeled "Recovery Disk" or something similar. Likewise, if you built your own PC (ATTA BOY!) or had a system custom built, then you should have your original Windows Disk. Either way, trying to back up Windows is simply not necessary.
Don't bother backing up Programs: Specifically, any programs, applications, games, etc. that you installed on your pc from disks. These may be things like your Office productivity suite, your accounting software or the HALO 3 game that you waited 12 hours in line for. You don't need to worry about backing these things up because you already have them on disk.
OK. Now that we have discussed what NOT to back up, let's get to the stuff that you DO need to back up. In the previous list, I mentioned that it is unnecessary to back up your accounting program. No sooner than I wrote those words, I heard you shout..."WHAT!? Why wouldn't I want to back up my accounting stuff!?? Are you INSANE, Mr. Computer Guy!?" That's entirely possible, but beside the point for this discussion. What I'm getting at is that while it is not productive to back up your accounting PROGRAM, it is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to back up your accounting DATA.
AH HA! Now we're getting somewhere... What we need to understand is the difference between PROGRAM FILES and DATA FILES. In a netshell, program files are the software that you use when working (or playing) on your computer. Examples of these are your operating system (Windows), Productivity software such as Microsoft Office, Accounting software such as Quicken and so on. Data files, on the other hand, are the unique files that YOU create when using these programs. In other words DATA files are your own personal stuff. These file may consist of the obvious things such as your accounting data, documents or spreadsheets, music collection and family photos. Data files may also include some not so obvious things like your email address book, your internet favorites (bookmarked web sites) and your user account settings for Windows, just to name a few.
Now, having cleared that up, here's a list of things on your Windows PC that you should add to your backups:
DEFINITELY BACK UP:
- The "MY DOCUMENTS" folder - By default, this is where windows places all of your important data. This folder will contain sub-folders for your music, photos, videos, documents and so on. This one is very important so it's first on the list.
- The "FAVORITES" folder - This folder contains all of your internet favorites.
- The "DESKTOP" folder - Mostly just shortcuts, but many people (me, for instance) have a tendancy to download files directly to the desktop and then organize them at a more convenient time (namely, when the desktop is completely full).
Well, I hope this discussion has been helpful to you. It's certainly worth a small investment of time and money to protect your valuable data. Now it's up to you. Don't procrastinate. Take the time RIGHT NOW and get your data backup strategy in place. If you don't have the software yet, Click Here Now, and download a copy to try out. Once you see how easy it is, you will be glad you did it and most importantly the next time your computer crashes, you'll have some peace of mind.
