subject: How You Can Correctly Backup Your Data Using DVDs, Another Hard Disk or Offsite Backups [print this page] How You Can Correctly Backup Your Data Using DVDs, Another Hard Disk or Offsite Backups
The information on your personal computer can be very vital to you, especially if you are like those of us who make their living on a personal computer. Over the last several years, the personal computer has become a part of all of us, making our day-to-day lives so much easier. For that very reason, it should be obvious that if we lost the files on our computer, it would completely destroy most of our personal identity. Losing data can be a great thought, at the very least. Although personal computers usually store your information reliably, these machines are known to fail every once in a while. The three main methods to preserve your information are DVD backups, complete hard drive backups and offsite backups.
Although the PC has become a lot more commonplace in the past several years, it is virtually impossible to keep computers from losing data. You must not give up without a fight though, because you can indeed take reasonable steps. The ideal way to guarantee that you don't lose your precious information is to back up and keep backing up. You must back up the data on your personal computer at least once a week, plus a backup daily for new or changed files being the recommended way to go.
Formerly, and even for some today, the DVD disk is the main medium in use to preserve the data on your computer. Even though DVDs store a relatively small amount of information, they are easy to obtain, easy to use, and almost every PC has one. So decide what folders - usually 'My Documents' and perhaps your folders for Email, Music, Photos and downloaded software - then burn them directly to a data DVD or compress them to a zip file and burn that archive to the DVD. When you utilize DVD/RW disks, you can keep on adding information to them each time you do a backup. If you do not use the RW (re-writable) media, then you will not be able to come back another time and add more data to the disk.
If you are planning to make use of disks, you'll need a DVD drive, which you may get for a great price these days. The disks are inexpensive also, which just makes this method of backing your data up that much better. Burning files straight to DVDs is the form of backup which most people are utilizing these days, although a recommended way of backing up your information is to backup the entire hard drive. Those of you who would like to move up to the next level ought to look into backing up your entire hard drive. Backing up your whole hard disk is indeed one of the best and most reliable techniques to backup your PC. If you create a backup of your whole hard disk, it will copy all of your data, so if a disaster occurs you'll always have your information.
Running a full backup of your entire hard disk is great, although it can take lots of time. To make matters worse, they advise that you make a full backup at least once a week. To look at it another way, however, if what you have on your PC is critically important, you'll discover it is more than worth the effort and time needed to back up your things. You will need an additional hard disk that's at least as large as your main hard disk.
The most modern method to back up your data and executable files is to make use of offsite backups. Many companies provide offsite backup services, and you can find them at the link below. Just like using DVDs, when setting up one of these offsite backup services you have to tell them what folders to backup, then you simply let the service make its first full backup of those folders - this usually may take a few hours. From then on, it's entirely automated: the backup service checks for new and updated files, and transmits them to their offsite backup computers.
A significant issue to think about is if your offsite backups store earlier versions of data. This is called "versioning." This way, when you need to restore one or a few files that somehow got corrupted, just go to their servers - often you may use your web browser - and copy a previous version to your personal computer. Making use of offsite backups means that you need not worry about someone stealing or destroying your backup media - DVDs or extra hard drive - together with your computer.
Whether it is for business or for personal reasons, you can't go wrong backing up your data. You must always try to back things up in the right way, not forgetting the registration keys for any software you bought, as this will ensure that your programs along with your data will always be recoverable if you need to recover them. You can most likely get copies of setup programs on the Internet or by asking your friends, but you will need your original registration keys to install them legally.
This way, if you inadvertently erase some files, or your personal computer is stolen, lost, or destroyed in a disaster, or your hard disk happens to burn out and you lose everything on it, you will always have your backup files to restore from. This by itself should save you lots of time, effort, worry, and quite probably even hard-earned cash - just because the files are all but a simple copy away to recover, either from DVDs, an extra hard disk or offsite backups.
