By Jama St. John
As a business owner, there are many things that need to be done on a regular basis to protect your investment. Backing up your computer on a consistent basis is important to keeping your data intact. There are many ways we could lose information on our computer: a power surge, natural hazards like lightning or tornadoes, fire, unnatural hazards like viruses, and just plain old equipment failure. We don't like to think about it, but any of those are possible at the most inopportune moment!!
First, let's start with what to backup. You can do full operating system backups or just backup certain information. Here's a list of some of the specific things you might not have thought of:
- Documents.
- Bank records and other financial information.
- Digital pictures.
- Software and music purchased and downloaded through the Internet.
- E-mail address book.
- E-mails.
- Outlook calendar.
- Internet Explorer "Favorites".
- And most important, anything you cannot replace if your computer crashed.
Next, how often should you backup? This really depends on your personal use of your computer and what information you store on it. For example, I have done a backup of my entire system using Maxtor's One Touch II external hard drive, and I will do this monthly... possibly more often if I've installed a new program or made several changes to my computer. But in addition to my entire system backup, I also have a backup of my digital pictures onto a DVD-RW for permanent storage. And I backup my Outlook address book and emails, QuickBooks files, My Documents, and Internet Explorer Favorites weekly onto a DVD-RW.
Now, where to store your backup? First, there are several offsite backup storage services on the Internet. Google "offsite backup" and you'll get endless choices. Most have some sort of monthly fee. When choosing an online storage company, you want to make sure that the service is not only reliable, but that the company is stable and will not unexpectedly go out of business and you can't get your backup. A positive to online storage is that your backup is stored away from your office or home. In the event of a natural disaster your backup would not be affected. A couple of cons are if the online service's servers go down, you won't have access to your files, the company's servers could be hacked and your information could get in the hands of someone you don't want it to get into, and the company could go out of business without warning. I personally do not use online storage, but several other virtual assistants have recommended Carbonite or Mozy. Whoever you choose, do your homework and consider not only using offsite storage but one or more of the following onsite storage.
As far as onsite backup, there are several options.
- CD/RW: Newer computers come with either a DVD or CD burner and pre-installed software. The CD/RW compact discs are rewritable, meaning you can use the same CD over and over. CD/R compact discs are not rewritable and can only be used one time. Compact discs hold up to 700 MB and are fairly inexpensive.
- DVD/RW: Newer computers come with a DVD/RW burner and pre-installed software, which will also burn CDs. A DVD can hold up to 8.5 GB and are still a fairly inexpensive way to backup.
Whether you choose a CD or DVD back up, organization is key. Make sure to label your discs and date them. If you're doing a major back up, you'll possibly need more than one disc to complete the backup.
- USB flash drive: This is a small hard drive about 2 or 3 inches long that plugs into a computer's USB port. You can download information directly onto the flash drive over and over. A search on http://www.amazon.com resulted in numerous flash drives, ranging from 512 MB up to 4 GB. If you choose to use the USB flash drive, be careful where you put it -- they're tiny!!
- External hard drive: This is a hard drive that is separate from your computer. It has its own electric source and you connect it to your computer via USB or FireWire. Storage sizes vary from 120 GB up to 500 GB and the one-time cost of purchasing the hard drive is more expensive than our other options. I personally use Maxtor's One Touch II for backing up my entire system. It creates historical backup versions with full system restore to a point in time, something that's unique to this way of backing up. It comes with its own software for backing up the system.
When using onsite storage, it's best if you have someplace offsite to store your backup. Perhaps take a copy home with you, as well as leaving a copy at the office. I have a separate storage building where I keep my backup. This way, if there's a fire or water gets into my office, my backup is still safe.
Okay. So you've decided what to backup, when to backup and what media you want to use, now, how do you do it? Well, to some degree this varies on which method you've chosen to backup to. But basically, if you're using Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional Edition, there is a backup utility you can use to do a partial or complete backup. If you're using Windows XP Home Edition, you'll have to install the backup utility from your Windows XP CD. If you're using an external hard drive backup, this will have its own backup software.
Now let's say you've gotten your entire computer backed up, but every now and then you want to back up your Outlook email messages. Here's how: Select "File," then "Import and Export". Select "Export to a file," then click next. Select "Personal folder file (.pst)," click next. Select which folder you want to copy. For example, the Inbox, including all subfolders. Click next. Then choose where you want to backup to. I personally save it to "My Documents".
And what about all those Favorites you've stored on Internet Explorer? Here's how you can save those to backup. Select "File," then "Import and Export". This will start the Import and Export Wizard. Select "Export Favorites," click next. Select "Favorites," click next. In the next window you can choose where you want to save your backup. Again, I personally save to "My Documents". Click Finish.
When I backup my QuickBooks weekly, I also back this up to "My Documents". When I download programs off the Internet, these are downloaded into a subfolder called "Downloads" located in "My Documents".
I put everything I can into "My Documents" because then weekly when I backup to a DVD, I only have to backup my "My Documents" folder. As I mentioned earlier, I also do a full system backup to the external hard drive monthly, at least.
Depending on how much data you're backing up, it can take a long time to finish, so be sure you're backing up when your computer will be on and you won't be using the computer. You can also set the computer to backup automatically.
Now you're loaded with knowledge to begin your ritual of backing up.
"Jama St. John of Gulf Coast Office Support publishes a biweekly e-newsletter with tips for office efficiency. To receive your subscription, go to http://www.gulfcoastos.com" Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jama_St._John |
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