Backup

This page is part of the "legacy" version of HTCC online. It's here for continuity and reference. This website has been semi-retired since 2009, and is seldom updated.

Windows 7 offers much better backup and restore features than Windows XP, including full drive imaging. For Vista [look here] and [here].

Backing up for success

Paraphrasing Mark Twain, "Backup is good, backup is impressive; but it is recovery that does all the work."

Step 1: Organize your file locations so it's easy to find everything you want to back up. Otherwise, you're bound to leave out just what you end up needing. :-(

Keep your backups safe and well organized too, or you'll never find what you need when you need it. ;-)

Step 2: Decide how often you need to back up things. Base your decisions on how much you're willing to risk losing between backups. You may want to back up something you're actively working on every few minutes. You may be willing to risk waiting a week to back up other things.

Step 3: Select appropriate backup location/media: Removable media...floppies, CDs and DVDs...has been traditional. External hard drives or maybe two internal hard drives are better alternatives. Online (Cloud) backup is now reliable and affordable too (does free work for you?).

Be sure you encrypt any personal or business files somewhere in your backup process. That's as important for local backups as it is for Cloud backups unless you're sure nobody will break in and grab your external hard drive.

Step 4: Pick a good way to make your backups. There are many backup methods and programs to choose from. Pick a process that will be easy for you to repeat.

Note: The probability your external hard drive will fail on the same day your internal hard drive fails is very low...quite a bit less than 1 in a million. Don't worry about it. But it probably will fail sometime. So be sure anything important is stored somewhere else. That could be your computer's hard drive, cloud storage or another hard drive.

Step 5: Verify your backup contents. Do they include everything you thought they would? Good backup programs can automatically "verify" that your backups worked, but computers sometimes lie. Trust your backup program, but check the backups yourself from time to time (see Step 6). [short story]

Step 6: It's essential to validate your restore process. If you're not certain you can restore files now, chances are you won't be able to when you need to. It wouldn't hurt to check the process again from time to time either. ;-)

Don't just overwrite perfectly good original files from backup files just to test them. See tips for testing backups to learn how to do it prudently.

Step 7: Keep an archive copy of your most important backups somewhere else. Maybe in a safe deposit box or at your buddy's place. Inexpensive or free cloud storage also makes a good place to archive an extra copy of essential data.

Step 8: Update your backups on a regular schedule. Back up before major changes too, e.g., before installing or uninstalling programs. You never know what might go horribly wrong.

If you're working on a complex document, back it up before and maybe after you make a big change, or every 10 minutes or so...whichever comes first. Some programs give you the option to do that automatically.

Online (Cloud) backup