Maintaining your computer is just like any other complex piece of equipment: There are a handful of tedious tasks that you should do on a regular schedule to keep the machine running properly and to avoid major problems. You should change the oil in your car several times a year and replace the filter in your furnace every couple of months, or they won’t continue to perform as well as they should. It’s the same with a computer. If you don’t make backup copies of your data, defragment the hard drive, and run some other preventive maintenance on your computer, its performance will gradually slow down. Eventually, some crucial component may break, taking all your information with it. You should either perform these preventive maintenance tasks on an automated schedule, or remember to run them manually. Like changing the oil in your car, there’s no immediate satisfaction to these tasks, but you know that they need to be done. As those people who sell the expensive sneakers keep saying, “Just Do It”; in the long run, the potential cost of not making backups or defragmenting your drive is a lot greater.

Back Up Your Data

It may not happen today or tomorrow, but eventually your hard drive will stop working. Either a mechanical part will wear out, or an electronic compo- nent will die, or your computer will be exposed to a massive electric surge, or something else will cause it to fail. Hard drives do not last forever. If you have a laptop or other portable computer, there’s still another risk: somebody will steal your computer. When that happens, you will have one of two reactions: either you will experience a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach as you try to resuscitate the thing, because it contains all the details of your entire life, all of your business and financial records, and all the work you’ve done for the last six months; or you will curse briefly, and then go to the place where you stored a backup copy of your data, load the data onto another drive, and get on with your life. There’s an obvious lesson here: that lesson is “Back up your data.” There are programs that can read files on damaged drives (see article 16 for more information about those programs) and commercial services that can recover data from almost any dead drive (unless the physical disk platter inside the drive is damaged), but those programs don’t always work, and the services often charge hundreds of dollars just to look at the drive and let you now if the data can be saved. The actual recovery can run into several thousand dollars or more. It’s a lot easier and safer to keep backup copies of anything you don’t want to lose. There’s a lot more information about disaster recovery in article 16. But there’s no question that making backups every day or two is the absolute best way to avoid losing data. Even so, most people don’t bother unless they work in a place where the boss insists on it; not until they have already suffered through a catastrophic. People who are serious about backups often make two sets of copies; a daily backup that stays near the computer for convenient access, and a separate weekly set that goes someplace where it will be safe after a major disaster such as a flood or a fire. You might want to store the off-site backups in your safe-deposit box, or maybe in a storage box at the home of a relative or good friend across town. As you plan your system for making backup copies, you should ask several questions:

What data should I back up? How often should I back up my data? What kind of media should I use to store the backup copies? What method should I use to make the copies?

What Should I Back Up?

It’s almost never necessary to back up absolutely everything on your hard drive. You already have copies of both Windows and the application programs that run on your computer on the CDs and diskettes that were used to distribute the software. When you have to replace a drive, it’s almost always easier to reinstall the software from scratch, rather than trying to restore it from a backup. You might have to spend some time changing the config- uration settings and options, and downloading patches and updates through the Internet, but in most cases that’s not a particularly big deal. Of course, this assumes that all of the software on your computer came in colorful boxes from commercial sources. It’s likely that you’re also using some programs and utilities that you downloaded through the Internet and stored on your hard drive. You might even have some programs that you created yourself. If your only copy of a program is on your hard drive, you should either create a set of copies on CDs or other removable media, or make a list of the programs and the web addresses where you can download another copy of each one. You can almost always find the web address for downloadable programs by opening the File menu and choosing About. Print a couple of copies of the list of downloaded programs, and store them with the backups of your data files. Data files are much more difficult (if not impossible) to restore from other sources. If the only copy of your novel, your company’s accounts, your digital photos and videos, or any other work is on a hard drive, and that drive dies, you’re out of luck. The data, and the time it took to create that data, is lost. You should definitely make backups of those files.

Some programs store the data that they create in subfolders within the program folder. For example, your e-mail program probably keeps copies of all the messages that you have sent and received in files and folders stored in the same folder as the software that controls the program itself. So you can’t ignore the subfolders that Windows stores within the Program Files folder when you’re backing up your system. You should look at each program folder and make sure there aren’t data files inside. Most backup programs include a list of all the files on each drive, and a method for selecting individual files and complete folders for the backup. When you’re ready to make your backup, you should step through the list of folders and files and choose the ones you want to copy. Your rule of thumb should be, “When in doubt, back it up.” It’s a lot better to have a backup copy of a file you never use than to skip a file that turns out to have been essential after your drive has failed. And don’t forget your laptop computer. For many of us, the laptop has replaced the notebook or the yellow legal pad as the place where we store notes, memos, and other essential information. Because laptop computers are attractive targets for thieves, you should back up your data as frequently as it is practical to do so. Maybe not every day, but whenever you come home from a trip or an important meeting. If you’re on the road, think about sending copies of important documents, notes, and files to yourself via e-mail on a regular schedule.

How Often Should I Back Up My Data?

How many days of data can you afford to lose? Your backup schedule will depend on how important you consider your data and other files to be. If the files are absolutely essential to the conduct of your business, you should make backups at the end of every business day, or even more frequently. On the other hand, if the drive contains data that you can reconstruct from other sources, it could be safe to make backups only once every week or even less often than that. And of course, there’s no rule that says you have to create your backups on a formal schedule. If you’re working on an important project such as a thesis or the manuscript of a book, or if you have just uploaded some irreplace- able photographs from your digital camera, you should make a backup at the end of each work day.

What Kind of Media?

It doesn’t really matter what type of storage media you use to hold your backed-up files, as long as you have a convenient way to read those files. If your computer has a CD or a DVD drive that can record onto blank disks, that’s an excellent choice recordable CDs and DVDs are cheap, easy to read, and they have a relatively large capacity. Other recordable media, such as Zip disks or tape, will also work, but the devices required to read them are less common, and the storage media are more expensive. Remember, you’re preparing for a worst-case disaster in which your own computer has been stolen or damaged beyond repair, so you shouldn’t choose media that use an obscure storage type that will be difficult or impossible to read when you have to retrieve your data. An external drive that connects to the computer through a USB or FireWire port is another practical storage alternative. Tape drives, hard drives, and recordable CDs are all available in external packages with USB and FireWire connections. Storing your backup data on another computer is still another alternative. Making copies from one computer to another through a network can be fast and convenient, but remember that you’re making the backups to protect against a major disaster. If the backup computer is in the same building as the original, it’s possible that a fire, earthquake, or lightning strike would destroy both machines at the same time. And a burglar who discovers two computers in the same room will probably take both of them.

What Backup Method?

The least complicated way to back up your data is simply to use Windows Explorer to copy them from the hard drive to the backup storage media. It may be easy, but it’s also tedious: you’ll have to copy each folder and file separately. This process consumes a lot of time, and they take a lot of space on the storage media because the backed-up files and folders aren’t compressed. A dedicated backup program, or a program that creates an image of the whole drive, is the better approach. Microsoft has included a backup utility with Windows XP, but if you’re using an earlier version, you’ll have to find one from another source. Symantec’s Norton Ghost product is widely distributed through retail software channels, and several other backup programs are available as try-before-you-buy shareware. The Tucows web- site (www.tucows.com/downloads/Windows/IS-IT/FileManagement/ BackupRestore/) offers links and ratings for a long list of these programs. To use the Backup Utility in Windows XP, follow these steps:

1. From the Windows desktop, open My Computer.

2. Right-click the icon for the drive you want to back up, and choose Properties from the pop-up menu.

3. Open the Tools tab and click the Backup Now button. The Backup Utility will open.

4. Open the Backup tab to open the window.

5. Use the tree structure to find and select each of the files and folders that you want to include in this backup. Click the + symbol next to each drive or folder name to expand the list of its contents.

6. Use the Browse button at the bottom of the window to choose a location where you want to store the backup file.

7. Click the Start Backup button at the lower-right corner of the window. The program will copy your files to the location that you have specified.

8. When the backup is complete, remove the storage media that holds the backup, and place it in a secure location. To restore the backed-up data, open the Backup Utility and follow these steps:

1. Connect or load the media that holds the backed-up data to your computer.

2. Open the Backup Utility, and select the Restore And Manage Media tab.

3. Expand the backup tree structure to find and select the file or folder you want to restore.

4. Use the drop-down Restore Files To menu to choose the location where you want the place the restored data.

5. Click the Start Restore button.