PersonalComputerAdvisorSecurity

Simple and efficient, I come to you EVERY TIME!


		*Computer Backup*
Home Security Backup HDTV Digital Photos Training Software		If you create content you care about, then you must back it up. You can backup to removable disks (floppy or CD-R). You can backup to an external hard disk (CMS). You can backup several systems to CD-R or DVD-RW using Norton Ghost. You can use a combination of techniques to further reduce your risk. When your hard disk crashes the availability of your data can only be assured by restoring from a backup copy. I can help you configure the backup of your valuable information. Backup to removable disks If you create only a few pieces of information you truly don't want to lose, copying these files onto a floppy disk is a reasonable and inexpensive backup technique. If you have more content than fits easily onto a few floppy disks, consider regularly copying the files onto a zip disk (a larger floppy disk) or onto a CD-R disk. Both of these techniques can also be automated with simple inexpensive software. The downside of this approach is that it only backs up your data. Your operating system and installed programs will all require re-installation from the source CD's. This can require 4 or more hours of effort and assumes you can track them all down. Of course this technique also requires that you to initiate the back up and insert disks. So some attention on your part is needed up and most of us lack the discipline to backup consistently. Backup to an external hard disk If you have a network of computers, you can of course just copy files between them and hope that they all don't crash simultaneously. This requires some setup, but is an inexpensive approach. Alternately, if you are willing to invest $250 to $500 (depending on how much you need to backup) you can buy an external hard disk which will make a nightly backup copy of the contents of your primary hard disk. The upside of this approach is that it requires no user interaction (it is total automated). It also backs up the contents of your entire hard disk, so you won't accidentally miss an unforeseen critical file. The other upside is that it backs up your operating system and program configuration. Restoration from this format is much quicker than manually reinstalling your operating system and program files. CMS offers a good external backup system: CMS: http://www.cmsproducts.com Backup using Norton Ghost Norton Ghost allows you to take a snapshot of the computer's configuration. You can use it to make a backup of the entire hard drive including operating system and program files. Restoration is much quicker than manually reinstalling the operating system and program files. If you have several computers you also use an external ($100) CD-R or DVD-RW drive in conjunction with Norton Ghost. However you need to move the external CD-R to each system. Typically you would make a full Ghost backup only after major configuration changes. You then couple this approach with a more selective nightly backup of data files that change regularly. Norton: http://www.norton.com
		Further reducing risks If you want to further reduce the risk of data loss, you can couple the CMS backup approach with the Norton Ghost CD-R snapshot approach. This ensures that if the your hard disk fails, and the restore of your CMS backup fails, you still have the Ghost CD-R to fall back upon. When would your CMS backup fail? Of course it could fail mechanically. But a possible weakness in a nightly snapshot of your system is that it doesn't protect against a gradual corruption of your system by say adware or spyware. If you find your system is messed up and you want to restore it to a clean state you would not want to restore yesterday's snapshot (of this corrupted configuration). If you were careful enough to create and save a snapshot of your system that you know is clean (from say 6 months ago), you could quickly restore the clean configuration of 6 months ago and then just recover from your nightly backup any data that has recently changed. This is how you could use a 6 month Ghost snapshot coupled with nightly CMS backups to reduce your risk. Another option is to buy 2 CMS backup devices. You can take a snapshot of your clean configuration onto drive "A" and stick it on the shelf (or in a safe deposit box), and then you use a second drive "B" for your nightly backup. If you want a belt AND suspenders level of protection these would be effective approaches. The dual CMS approach is certainly more elegant and much less of a hassle than burning CD's using Norton Ghost but it is also more pricey since you have to buy double the hardware.
		Copyright (C) ASD Computing LLC Last modified: March 17, 2005 Send mail to hotandrewdixon@hotmail.com with questions or comments about this web site.