Tech Directions - December 2008 - (Page 12)

mastering computers Reid Goldsborough reidgold@comcast.net Backing Up Isn’t Hard to Do The mantra to prevent loss of important data created with a computer is “Back up, back up, back up.” Even if some of the worst disasters strike, whether a natural disaster such as a ﬁre, a machine disaster such as a hard disk crash, or a human disaster such as accidentally deleted ﬁles, if you regularly make backups and store at least some offsite, you’ll greatly lessen your recovery time. Despite the repeated advice about backing up offered over the years, many people still avoid what they consider to be a tedious and unnecessary chore. But various options today make backing up easier than ever, and choosing the appropriate option depends largely on how much data you produce and how important it is. Backing up is a speciﬁc type of save procedure. But instead of saving your word processing, spreadsheet, graphics, and other data to your hard drive as you do normally, you save it to another medium. You have four main choices, with some overlap among them, and you can opt for more than one for added safety: 1. File-based backup. This is the oldest type of backup procedure, and it’s still popular. You can manually copy individual ﬁles to a writable CD or DVD, USB drive, secondary hard drive, ﬁle server, or disk space that your Internet service provider offers. Or you can use a program that automates the process for you, allowing you to preselect ﬁles or folders you want backed up at speciﬁc times. Windows Vista PCs and Macintosh computers come with their own backup software. Some Internet service providers, such as Comcast, offer free automated backup as part of their security suites. Any of these programs may be all you need, but they’re typically more limited compared with stand-alone programs. PowerBackup (www.cyberlink. com) is easy to set up and use, and it has all of the tools that most educators need. It supports writable CDs and DVDs and external hard drives but not tape drives. NovaBackup (www.novastor.com) also does all the basics easily and does support tapes drives but is a bit more expensive. 2. Image backup. Here you back up in one fell swoop the entire image of your hard drive, including your operating system and programs. It’s more time-consuming than backing up selected ﬁles, but it makes it easier and quicker to get back to work if you have to start over from scratch. Norton Save & Restore (www. symantec.com) is easy to use, and for added ﬂexibility it lets you also back up and restore individual ﬁles. Runtime Software DriveImage XML (www.runtime.org) doesn’t let you back up individual ﬁles, but it’s free, and if you want a basic image backup program to complement other solutions, it can be a good choice. revision of ﬁles, all revisions, or a speciﬁed number of revisions. Larger institutions typically need beeﬁer backup solutions, such as network-attached storage. Products such as Iomega StorCenter Pro (www. iomega.com) offer automated backup of multiple PCs through institutional networks to their own hard drives. 4. Off-site backup. No backup will help if the building goes up in ﬂames. Off-site backup includes carrying home critical ﬁles on a USB drive, manually copying ﬁles to your Web space after encrypting them with a ﬁle compression program, and using an automated online backup service. Online backup services are most convenient, but because of the time it takes to upload ﬁles over even high-speed connections, they’re best suited for a small number of the most critical ﬁles. ElephantDrive.com is a good choice for many people, offering various packages, from one gigabyte of backups per month (for free) to unlimited. Windows Live Workspace (workspace.ofﬁcelive.com) is a free service from Microsoft that lets you store Microsoft Ofﬁce documents ofﬂine. Reid Goldsborough is a syndicated columnist and author of the book Straight Talk About the Information Superhighway. 3. Continuous backup. If your data is mission critical, this is the way to go. With continuous backup, also called continuous data protection or realtime backup, speciﬁc ﬁles you specify are backed up as soon as you create or change them. The downside is that is can slow your computer down a bit. NTI Shadow (www. ntius.com) backs up ﬁles as they change or at speciﬁc intervals you choose. It lets you save only the latest More than Fun Answers 12 techdirections ◆ DECEMBER 2008 http://www.iomega.com http://www.iomega.com http://www.cyberlink.com http://www.cyberlink.com http://www.novastor.com http://www.ElephantDrive.com http://www.symantec.com http://workspace.officelive.com http://www.symantec.com http://www.runtime.org http://www.ntius.com http://www.ntius.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Tech Directions - December 2008

Tech Directions - December 2008 Contents Advertisers Index Technically Speaking Direct from Washington The Report Technology Today Technology’s Past Mastering Computers Digital Portfolios—Powerful Marketing Tool for Communication Students Choosing the Right CC Welding Unit—Student Success Depends on It Think Green—Increasing Awareness of Garbage and Recycling Think Green—Teach Students Smart Ways to Reduce Home Energy Use Go International! Build a Simplified Shortwave Receiver Mooresville Middle School Snags Web Site of the Month Gifts for Geeks More than Fun

Tech Directions - December 2008

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