| 24th
January, 2007
MIKE SMITH
Too many times I've heard it said: “I just lost
this file and that program because I did not back up”.
There are many reasons that you can lose files, emails or
programs. It can be due to a computer crash, overwriting
a file, deleting a program when you're not sure what it does
or simply being in the middle of doing something when there
is a power loss.
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GOT
YOUR BACK: Saving data to CDs or DVDs is a simple
way of backing up. PICTURE: Elvis Santana (www.sxc.hu)
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You
should back up your data as much as possible. There are a
number of ways to avoid losing data. Here are just a
few:
• Replace your hard disk drive before it expires.
What a lot of people don’t know is that every hard drive
has a use-by date - this means that from the time of installation,
depending on how often you use it, your hard drive will eventually
crash seemingly without cause or warning after a few years.
Hard drives are relatively cheap at the moment - last year
I bought a 160 gigabyte portable hard drive for around $100.
It connects via my USB port, which almost every PC has. I
was able to put all my relevant information - including music
mp3’s, movie files, important data files and programs
- onto this drive as a backup. You might not think that you
need to back up much at all, but it is only when your computer
fails and you have to re-install everything that you realise
how much you could lose.
• Use a portable media or “flash”
drive. These come in the form of a USB stick that
connects to computer via the USB port. They are about
as small as your thumb and come in various sizes from 128
megabytes to two gigabytes. A great way transport data
to and from places and they work as a backup for personal
documents but be warned they are not fool proof and can fail
which means all the data will be lost. Use them but
do not rely on them.
• Partition your hard drive. When buying
a new computer you can ask whoever is building your computer
to “partition” your hard drive, which means that
it is divided into sections. I recommend that it be divided
into at least three sections; the first section for your operating
system, the second section for your files, documents and downloaded
internet material; and the last for all your programs and
games to run from.
• Use Windows Backup Utility. Windows
itself also comes with a backup utility although it is not
installed by default. It can be found by browsing the
Windows installation CD.
• Install a second hard drive to your computer.
Installing a second hard drive will mean even if your computer
fails, and you have to reinstall your computer, none of your
files will be lost. An easy way to do this is right
click on the “My Documents” menu in your computer
and click on properties. Under the “Target”
box change it from “C:\My Documents” to “E:\My
Documents” where E is, put your new drive letter.
• Organise your file. Arrange your
files like you would a filing cabinet, as in a-z folder. It
is very important to know and remember where you put things;
it's no good if you need a file now and find it next week.
When saving files, try not to overwrite important files, instead
use the “save as” feature under the file menu
of most programs and number your saves, ie. Example1.doc Example2.doc
Example3.doc.
• Use CD or DVD writer for backup.
Backing up on this kind of medium is a great way for saving
space and backing up data. Once you have got it on CD you
can then delete the files from your computer if you are pressed
for space.
As far as emails are concerned many email programs have an
import/export feature that allows a person to back up their
emails and address book. That's fine but for the last few
years, I have opted to use a public email account, such as
those offered by Hotmail, for several reasons including that
it currently gives me one gigabyte of space for backing up
emails and that if I need to keep something important, I just
email it to myself. Every email is scanned going in
and going out by a virus scanner which dramatically decreases
the chance of a virus. Not only that but if you change internet
service providers, you don’t have to change email addresses
and if every email address you have is kept on the internet,
they remain in the event of a computer failure.
FOR
MORE:
• For information on Windows backup:
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx
• For information on email backup:
www.modwest.com/help/kb9-331.html
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