Backing up your Data

BACKING UP YOUR DATA:

An important thing to know is that you are responsible for BACKING UP your data, if your like me and don't really keep anything on your machine to worry about then this really doesn't matter. But for those that have tons of important files, pictures, music and the like installed on your computer, well its important to save that stuff somewhere else as well.

If your DATA is important then you don't want all your eggs in one basket, in example all your Data in one place. Your machine is mechanical and as with all mechanical devices, you have the danger of the Hard Drive failing (HDD), when it fails one of two things can happen-

1) Your Hard drive fails and before replacing it, you take it to another a Tech Repair center and pay anywhere from 150 - 200 dollars for them to get the information off of it.

2) Your Hard drive fails and you can't retrieve the Data, or its not accessible, and you loose everything that was on it. Not a good place to be in, but I talk to alot of people that had "Important" Data on their machine and have lost it for this reason, and in their fit of anger I would have to say it is their own fault. If you have some Data that's important - then common sense would say to back the information up somewhere else to keep it safe.

Again it is YOUR computer, and 98% of its health is based on the programs you install and uninstall and the websites and the like that you visit that install junk behind the scenes on your machine. But there is the 2% of your hardware that could fail, and it is important to protect your information so that you can get it back if such a thing should happen to you.

BACKUP SOLUTIONS:

In the case of backing up your information you have several options. Each a little better than the others and there are some basic ways you can protect your other things like images for example that don't require a ton of money and expenses, I will explain.

PROTECTING YOUR PICTURES:

First if your just trying to protect your Pictures and images, a good resource is an uploading picture site. I use Photobucket and love it. I use it to this day for my editing and my family can see images and download them to a file and take them to get printed. I know that if my machine crashes, my pictures of my vacations, and children are safe. That service is free for basic use and you pay for added services from them, find out more at http://www.photobucket.com/ . create an account using your e-mail and then start uploading. Of course this is just one service and there are many out there to keep your information safe.

PROTECTING YOUR E-MAILS:

OK, if you use your e-mail on their website, example you log into yahoo, or AOL and the like to access your e-mails from them directly you have nothing to worry about. Those are being stored on the Internet and if your machine takes a dirt nap, when your back up and running again, simply go to your e-mail on the Internet and all your e-mails will be there.

However, if you use windows mail, windows live mail, outlook, outlook express, then your in for a nightmare in this situation and all your old e-mails will be gone. The reason is these programs download your e-mails from the Internet into your computer, and then generally delete them from your real e-mail on the Internet (where they would have been safe).

In this case you would want to follow the backup solutions I am about to provide to save your e-mails as well (if you wanted to keep them), or you can simply look into your Outlook options and in there will be an option to "delete" or "do not delete" the original e-mail when it is downloaded. If you change this then a copy of the e-mail will stay on your Internet account. If you do this you probably want to go to your e-mail account every once in awhile and clean out the ones you don't want. Generally e-mail providers charge for the amount of space you use in their server, meaning if your inbox gets too full they may start wanting to bill you, just go into it and clean out the ones you don't need.

I can't stress this enough, if you use Outlook or a similar program and you are not an E-mail spammer or sending image rich documents over the Internet in your e-mails, you don't need this service. Outlook is junk in my opinion, its like getting a third person to go and check your mail everyday and then using them to send mail etc. It just creates a window for failure.

I have 5 e-mail addresses and I go into the Internet and access them manually. I keep maintenance on them manually, and no problems and the like. Secondly if something goes wrong with your Windows Mail or Outlook, have fun talking to Microsoft after you pay them a ton of money to walk you through your issues. And odds are good that they are going to avoid blame and tell you there's something wrong with your machine. Don't rely on Outlook, just my thought.

BACKUP OPTIONS:

Every machine has a built in BACKUP and RESTORE feature built into the Windows program, this is a good thing to use but if the Hard drive fails the information is stored on the Hard drive and in turn doesn't save you in the long run. This does help if you are restoring your computer due to a virus or a program error or conflict but not in the case of a Hard drive crash.

So you have several backup options, all are good and some better than others. Below is the list and following just a brief description of who, what, when, where to make your life a little easier.
FLASH DRIVES/ ZIP DRIVES:

These are the fastest and most convenient tools in the UNIVERSE! Yes, the UNIVERSE! They can be bought at any TECH shop or retailer, and of course if you go to a big name you'll pay more for LESS, but hey some of us can't avoid a popular shopping spot because its a BRAND name.

The Hardware's the same in all the stores and in all, there's cheaper versions available a well as more expensive. My suggestion here is going to TARGET or WALMART (Never buy a computer at Walmart but a flash drive is fine) or even head over to my favorite - Radio Shack.

Now what you want is probably a 5-8 gig Flash Drive (they also call them Zip Drives or Thumb Drives) and they cost anywhere from $20.00 on up depending on the brand and the size. My favorite brand is Kingston or XDigital - I personally have two 4gig ones i use. The Travel Warrior and a Data traveler. I use one for Data backups and the other one I have computer repair tools on it for when I do home visits, I can simply plug it into the sick computer and run diagnostics and the like without worrying if I can get to the Internet or not. Very nice.

Once you get this you simply take it home and plug it into your USB port on the side of your machine. You can go into My computer (or COMPUTER, for Vista users) and see it there. Open it up and there you have a folder. Go to the Data files you want to protect and simply copy them into this folder, once done take the USB drive out and your done! Easy!

This device is basically a simply memory chip your plugging into the USB port so there are no moving parts and the odds of Hardware failure on these is bare minimum. However, you want to keep these away from any magnetic surface or device as this is how they store information and a magnetic charge could erase them completely.

My advice is to never backup programs to the USB drive as they can be corrupted, if you ever downloaded a program and saved it to your machine before installing it, that's called a SUITCASE or an INSTALLER, those are generally safe to backup, and then you can just put them back on your machine later if needed without having to download them. Yes move it to your desktop and then double click it to run and reinstall that particular program. Again- EASY!

EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES: (EHDD)

External Hard drives are the better option in the list and the reason for this is Space! They can range from $99.00 - up to well, the sky's the limit. There are two types, the old SATA drives that are just like the one in your machine but plugs into the USB port like a flash drive, or the NEW Solid State drives which are going to cost a little more, but are less likely to fail mechanically in the distant future like the SATA.

SATA has moving parts, where as the Solid state are like GIANT USB flash drive as explained above, just a quick reading memory chip and that's it, no moving parts. You WILL pay more for one of these and this is the main reason for the price difference (and like the USB Flash drives you want to keep them away from magnetic interference).

Some of these even have a BACKUP program built into them and you can backup all your data using a simple program once it is connected to your machine. If it doesn't you'd simply use the same steps as outline under the flash drive section to save your data.

Whenever you need to restore your data, simply plug in this external Hard drive and reverse the process, again the same rules apply- you do not want to backup programs themselves but the installers are fine and of course your pictures, music and documents.

PROGRAM AND ONLINE BACKUPS:
Online backups can be offered for example with your Norton Internet Security, or another protection program. I do not advise using these but hey, what ever floats your boat. They are safe and secure but very confusing and complicated to reverse the process and when you need help your computer manufacturer can't help you and the company that made the program will probably charge you $75 -$80 dollars for assistance.

The best option in the world is ONLINE backups through a third party. Yes I said it a Third party is BETTER. They offer uploads and time stamped backups that can backup your machines data every time you add something new or on a daily weekly or monthly basis, and as I said earlier the safest place for your data is on the Internet.

Be sure if your looking into this that you know the terms of use, that they insure that your data is safe (in case they loose it from a system crash or the like, which is rare and nearly unheard of) and that they offer support for when you need it. I do know that HP offers such services as do many other companies of some reputation. I can't really give any clear examples as I do not use this type of service as I have nothing on my computer I cant just re download or backup from my other sites. Let me know if you find any and I'll look into it and add them in a list here.

CLOSING:

Again I look forward to your feedback and suggestions. I am online at random times and access the live chat randomly as well. Be patient with me. Leave a message or email me if you have questions and if you see the LIVE on to the right on the live chat, simply click to talk to me. Again talk is free, happy computing everyone.

Stephen