subject: The World Of Backup Software: An Examination Of File Backup [print this page] A lot of backup utility options available these days and it may seem overwhelming trying to pick the right one.
If you do not currently have a backup of your files you risk losing money and time restoring your system in case of a computer failure or virus attack. Setting up your system from scratch will take quite some time and potentially cost you a lot, particularly if you use your PC for business or work. Imagine all the hours you spent setting up your computer, installing all the software, and working on your files.
Can you afford losing all your digital camera images, or losing all records needed for your tax records? Can you afford losing all your main files and do you have the time to re-invest numerous days setting up Windows on your PC?
But which solution is right for my unique needs, you might want to know. Backup solutions can be broadly categorized into two sets: drive imaging and data file backup.
File-based backup is the perfect answer for people who spend a lot of time and money producing documents of all sorts. Writers, sales experts, sales people, accountants, and designers invest a lot of time working on files and this investment makes these documents costly to recreate. Data file backup programs will ensure each document is stored in another location, such as an external drive, network share, another computer, or even an online server. If the worst happens, you can selectively restore each particular file as necessary.
Hard drive imaging systems, on the other hand, take a full copy of the entire hard drive of your computer. The strength here is that every single file, even those that you are unaware of, is stored in a so-called image file. Similar to file backups, image files can be stored on a USB drive, a second drive in your PC, on another server or PC, or far away on a FTP server on the Internet. Drive images offer you the benefit of backing up the entire hard disk, so you do not need to worry about specifying what file you want backed up.
Data backups offer the good thing of a specialized, targeted backup; you can select precisely what you want backed up and how you want it backed up. This is especially important when you have many files to work with. For example, you might have copied several gigabytes of digital pictures on your machine for a photography project. But maybe you are just experimenting with them and you do not want to fill your USB backup drive with redundant files that you will never need to restore. With file backup-based utilities, you can easily omit these pictures from your backup to avoid filling up your backup media with documents you do not care about. In addition, you can accelerate your backup process by configuring your file backup software to not compress your AVIs and JPEGs at all since media files generally do not compress that well.
Another strength of disk imaging over file backups is that it backs up Windows and all your programs as well. While file backups ensure your priceless files are secure, disk imaging provides a full system restore including Windows and Office. This is especially practical when you cannot find the original installation DVDs and will save you a lot of time when fixing your machine.
Some may find disk imaging is the way to go but it really depends on the circumstances. Disk imaging takes a lot more time and resources than file backup; hence, efficiency and time are the main distinguishing factors between the two technologies. Before choosing the product for your home office or business, you may want to weigh the positive aspects and negative aspects between each backup tactic.
