Available Options for Backing Up Your Data

Although your new PC comes equipped with a CD-Rewritable (CD-RW) drive, experience has proven that backing up critical data to CD-RW discs can be a frustrating experience yielding unreliable results. It's time to get serious about backing up your critical data!

Getting serious about your data requires consideration of the following: What information do you really need to backup and where is that information stored? For example, if you have files on your computer from June of 1999 that you no longer use but feel the need to keep, you might want to consider archiving those files off of your computer. 3½ floppy disks, Zip disks and CD-Recordable discs are all types of media that serve this purpose very well. Simply move your old files to the new media, apply a memorable title to the media and store it in an equally memorable, easily accessible location. Archiving data is a simple solution for reducing the amount of information that you need to backup. An equally simple solution for reducing the amount of information that you need to backup is purging your data. Let's reconsider those June 1999 files that you haven't used since June of 1999. If you haven't used them in five years, what is the likelihood that they're files you still need to keep? Purging files is like cleaning your closet at home and the same organizational principle applies: "If you haven't used it in a specified period of time, pitch it!" This is also true of your e-mail files, particularly the messages in your Local Mail's Sent folder.

Knowing where your information is stored also makes the process of backing up that information easier. It's much easier and faster to backup information that is stored in one central location as opposed to information that is scattered all over your hard drive. Ideally, you should be storing your files in well identified subfolders (as necessary) within the My Documents directory. Storing your files in one central location serves several purposes. You will be able to quickly copy your files to other types of media. It will be easier for you to verify that all the files you've chosen to copy have reached the destination media. You will be better able to determine what capacity backup device will best meet your needs.

It is strongly recommended that you backup your critical data so that you will be able to recover your hard work if you hard disk crashes or your computer suffers some other catastrophic failure. The computer market is flooded with numerous affordable, reliable devices that you can purchase for use as a backup device. USB flash drives and USB external hard drives are available in a variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from 64MB to 160GB. If you wish to backup your data you will need to purchase one of these devices. Please contact the Help Desk at your earliest convenience to schedule an appointment for discussing these options and determining the best backup device and procedure with a member of Desktop & Instructional Resources.