How Important are Backups?

copyright 2004 by Alden and Micki Nellis, Cleburne, TX
Computer Professionals USA, 603 N. Main, Cleburne, TX 76033 817-641-9646

How much would you be willing to pay someone to recover your data?

Now that we have your attention, let's talk about backups.

Most people don't backup. Then boom - a power surge, a hard disk crash, a
virus scrambles the disk, or Windows quits working, and they lose
everything.

There are two types of backups. One is a complete disaster recovery set. The
other is a normal backup which requires that Windows be running in order to
restore.

The disaster recovery set is needed when Windows won't run. If this happens,
the complete disaster recovery set can be used to put the hard disk backto
normal without reloading Windows.

With the normal backup, you have to get a working Windows system before you
can restore from tape. This can take several hours if your computer is
infested with viruses.

There are several ways to get a complete disaster recovery set.
You can install two identical hard disks, and clone the main hard disk
regularly. Cloning the hard disk gives you an identical hard disk in case
the first one malfunctions or malicious software is installed. There are two
weak points here: (1) The whole computer could be fried and both hard disks
lost. (2) If the first hard disk has malicious software and it is cloned,
then you have two hard disks with malicious software. The strong points are:
(1) It only takes two or three minutes to do it. (2) If the first disk
fails, the second disk can be online simply by changing bootup instructions
in cmos setup.

Another way is to make hard disk image files on CDs, using a program like
Norton Ghost, which is part of Norton System Works. It has two advantages:
(1) The CD sets can be stored away from the computer and kept indefinitely.
(2) More than one backup set can be kept. (3) The CD set can be restored to
a different computer. The drawbacks of this method are: (1) Someone must
attend to the backup to change CDs as required. (2) The backup is not to be
trusted unless it can be verified. Verifying it requires about the same
amount of time as backing it up. (3) If you have more than 5 or 6 CDs worth
of stuff on your computer, it takes too long. (4) The method seems to be
sensitive to electrical current fluctuation. The write process only gets one
chance to write, and if it fails, you have a bad image file. Therefore
verification of the backup set is a must.

Then there are disaster backups using tape and diskette. Windows XP has a
way of making a disaster recovery set using a tape. It puts recovery info on
a diskette and the rest of the files on a tape. You have to have a tape
backup installed on your computer for this.

For normal backups, not complete disaster recovery sets, you have some
options. If you have a tape drive, backup to tape. Be aware that you will
have to have Windows running in order to restore.

You could make a partial backup of data only. The problem with this is that
most people don't know where their data is stored. My Documents is where
most text and spreadsheet files end up, but where are your emails, checkbook
data, email address book, downloaded files, genealogy data, faxes,
downloaded ebooks, downloaded license keys, updated drivers, your passwords,
etc? The strategy I use is to make a directory called Data, then inside it
have My Documents and all the other stuff. You have to know how to assign
your default directories for email, accounting data, and so forth, because
it won't automatically go there.

You could have a combination backup strategy. Have one good Disaster Backup
on CDs. Have one backup of data only, either on tape, CDs, or zip drive. In
case of total failure, restore with disaster recovery CDs, then restore the
data only backup.

If you choose to buy a tape backup, be sure to get one with enough capacity
to back up your entire hard disk on one tape. Otherwise you'll have to
change tapes in the middle, and the backup won't get done as often.

How often should you backup? Well, how much data are you willing to lose?

What's the minimum backup needed? At least back up your data. If you do have
a disaster, or get infested with viruses or spyware that brings your
computer down, sometimes it makes more sense to wipe out the hard disk and
reload your Windows and other software, then restore your data.

Two other words of caution:

Run a test to make sure you can restore. If you can't restore for some
reason, your backup is useless. Theoretically, everything should work if you
backup correctly, but it's best to find the gotchas before you're in a real
bind.

Lastly, have all your original software CDs, license numbers, and device
driver disks all together in a safe place. Your software may be useless
without license numbers, and it costs you more if your repair person has to
search for and download your drivers from the internet.