One of my grand daughters takes pleasure
in keeping her things organized.
She certainly
didn't get that from me. I do
keep my files
and backups organized to avoid
eventual disaster
though.
The simple approach
Use Windows Explorer to create a folder on
your C:\ drive. Call it Backup. Then create
sub-folders in the Backup folder that you
can use to organize your backups in a way
that makes sense to you. Here's a couple
of examples: Don't put your backup folder in "My
Documents" -- you'd end up backing up
your backups when you back up My Documents.
- C:\Backup
- \E-mail\
- \Documents\
- \Photographs\
- \Records\
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In this example, folders are used to group
backups into separate categories. You might
want to back up your e-mail messages once
a month to C:\Backup\E-mail\ before you clean
out the messages in your e-mail program.
Name each backup 0201, 0202, 0203, etc.,
to represent Jan 02, Feb 02, Mar 02. They
will sort in chronologic order that way.
Back up the contents of your "My Documents"
folder to C:\Backup\Documents\. Back up your
photographs to C:\Backup\Photographs\. The
Records sub-folder might be for things like
tax returns.
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- C:\Backup
- 2002 - Q1
- 2002 - Q2
- 2002 - Q3
- 2002 - Q4
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This is a chronologic scheme. Use a new folder
for each Quarter -- or Month -- or Year --
what ever fits your needs. In this case you'd
put your e-mail, documents, photographs and
records all in the same bundles. You could combine these two schemes too.
Just do what works for you. Change it if
you find it doesn't. |
I like to use the "European" date
system for folders or files that I want to
sort in chronologic order. Year first, month
next, and day last. The long form is 2002.03.07
which is March 7, 2002. The short form is
020307 -- just 6 digits. Then there's no
mystery about the year, the month, or the
day. Compare that to 3-7-02. Even though
that format is familiar to most of us, it
doesn't sort in chronologic order.
Using partitions to organize files
I've learned a great deal from answering
questions in a class that I teach called
"Comprehensive Backup." I've learned
that partitioning hard drives is no longer
always the best thing to do before organizing
your files. Yes, it can allow Windows to
use the space more efficiently. Yes, it does
provide useful structure and flexibility.
On the negative side, many manufacturers
now do cute things with *hidden* partitions
on the hard drive already. You're likely
to lose your warranty and even damage your
system if you do partition the hard drive.
And now that Drive Image can write directly
to CD-Rs, it's not strictly necessary to
partition the hard drive before you can make
drive images. (But it's still useful -- I'll
probably continue to do it.)
Partitions can facilitate effective backup
and restore, as well as making it easier
to find and retrieve files. If your files
and backups aren't reasonably well organized
you may never be able to find and restore
the file you need. This computer has a single
hard drive (the other one is stranded in
Spokane at the moment. I have my files organized
on the following "drives":
- C:\ {Windows, the "Program Files"
that come with Windows, and a few other program
files that insist they must be installed on C:\}
- D:\ {Windows paging (swap) file}
- E:\ {Program Files, when the program allows
a choice (which is most of the time}
- F:\ {"My Documents" (you can move
that folder you know), Files that I've downloaded,
"Temporary Internet Files", etc.,
plus backup for the C:\ (images), and E:\
drives}
Here's the backup scheme that I use:
- C:\ {Backed up to F:\ using Acronis True Image withcopies on an external hard drive.)}
The size of the image is determined by the
amount of space used in the drive. If the
drive was the whole hard disk, the drive
image would grow to a large number. When
the drive is partitioned, all the files in
D:\, E:\, and F:\ are separated from C:\
- D:\ {No need to backup the swap file in this
partition-- Windows regenerates it}
- E:\ {Backed up to F:\ using Backup4all with copies on an external hard drive}
- F:\ {Backed up to an external hard drive
using Backup4all}
Using two hard drives
My scheme for organizing files with two hard
drives is shown below. The reason for dual
drives is explained here. Files shown in this color are on the second
hard drive. Those shown in black are on the first.
- C:\ {Windows, the "Program Files"
that come with Windows, and a few other program
files that insist they must be installed on C:\}
- D:\ {Linux (another operating system}
- E:\ {Windows paging (swap) file (does not
need backup}
- F:\ {Program Files, when the program allows
a choice (which is most of the time}
- G:\ {"Temporary Internet Files",
and backup for G:\ and H:\}
- H:\ {"My Documents" (you can move
that folder you know), Files that I've downloaded,
"Temporary Internet Files", etc.,
plus backup for the C:\ (images), and E:\
drives}
- I:\ {Backup for C:\, F:\ and G:\}
This arrangement allocates the amount of
space used for originals and backups fairly
evenly between the two drives.
Why dual hard drives? Hard drives fail, eh? If your backups are
on the same hard drive as your data and documents,
they'd all be gone when the hard drive fails.
They can sometimes be recovered for $200-$300
in service charges, but it's not likely.
The odds of two drives failing at the same
time are vanishingly small however. So...
replace the failed one, restore the backups
from the other one, and you're back in business
(relatively) easily. You can buy a hugh hard
drive for less than $100 these days. CD R/RW
drives are an excellent alternative to a
second hard drive -- Just a little more trouble
to use. And where do you put all those CDs?.
[back]
Resources
Acronis, PowerQuest or Symantec all offer drive imaging and drive partitioning software.
There's more information on drive imaging at the System Backup page.
[Continue to Part 2]
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