|
|
|
Backups - Introduction
Backups - Data Backups vs. Drive Images
Backups - External Hard Drives
Backups - Software for Data Backups
Backups - Online Backups |
Backups - Image-Based Backups
Backups - Seagate Replica
Backups - Windows Home Server
Backups - Small Business Server
Backups - Recommendations |
BACKUPS - EXTERNAL
HARD DRIVES
There are no excuses. You must have a backup of your
data that is updated regularly.
A backup
is just a second copy of
your files stored
separately from the
primary computer’s hard
drive. It doesn’t matter
how that copy is
maintained as long as
you understand the
process.
There
are many ways to back up
your data – your
documents and
spreadsheets, email,
photos, music, financial
records, and everything
else that is valuable on
your computer. Almost
anything will work if
you have an individual
computer but you’ll have
to think things through
if you have several
computers or a small
network. (I’ll talk
later about the
different considerations
for small businesses
with data on servers.)
It’s not mandatory but
most of you should
handle backups by
purchasing a large USB
external hard drive.
Prices are best on
drives that are 750Gb –
1Tb, currently around
$100-125.
Here’s a fairly
arbitrary selection from
Amazon. You can make
a personal choice – you
might decide you want a
pocket size drive or
something that has
decorator colors. The
manufacturers have
discount lines for a few
dollars less, or more
expensive versions with
added features. (The
added features are
frequently unnecessary.
In particular, you don’t
need a Firewire
connection.) Some of the
smaller ones do not have
to be plugged into
electricity (they get
their power from the USB
cable), which is
convenient but
reportedly a bit touchy
sometimes.
The
brand doesn’t matter.
Personally, I’d buy from
Western Digital, Maxtor,
or Seagate but I could
be tempted by something
quirky like the adorable
little Toshiba on the
right.
April
2009: I recently set up
a particularly sturdy
Western Digital Elements
1Tb drive - solid
and quiet. It felt
serious.
When you
connect an external hard
drive to a Windows XP or
Vista computer, it will
be assigned a new drive
letter and show up in My
Computer within twenty
seconds or so. It’s
ready to be used
immediately - no
software is required to
begin using the drive.
It
probably seems like
overkill to get a drive
with 750Gb of space or
more – that’s probably
bigger than your
computer’s hard drive -
but there are some
advantages to the extra
space. You can make
copies of your data in a
couple of different
ways, as we’ll discuss
further on, and your
backup software may keep
multiple copies of files
as they’re edited and
changed, letting you go
back to earlier versions
of a document when you
regret the changes last
week, for example. You
can also set things up
to keep backup copies of
files that are deleted
from your computer just
in case a finger slips
on the Delete key.
|
|
