Home

Hard drives can fail at any time. A lot of time, expense and tears can be saved if you backup your data regularly. How regularly? Preferably as soon as you create a new file. There are different ways to backup:

RAID drives

A RAID system uses 2 or more internal hard drives that work as one. There are many different combinations of drives that can be used but the two common ones are RAID 0 and RAID 1. RAID 0 is designed for speed and does NOT make copies of your data.

The RAID 1 system automatically makes two identical copies of everything you do including changes to your data, programs and operating system. If one drive fails, the second automatically takes over. My only problem with RAID is if the computer is stolen or destroyed by fire or flood, both drives are lost.

Who I am

Services

Contact me

Free Guides

Free Software

Links

External drives

This is the easiest method for most people. For small amounts of data you can get an inexpensive thumb drive or for large amounts of data you can get a true external hard drive.

These drives usually connect to your computer via a USB port. Just plug it in and wait a few seconds, the computer will install it automatically for you, this works even in Safe Mode. You will eventually get a message letting you know that it is ready, it then appears as drive in “My Computer”.

Backup to these external drives is not automatic, you have to remember to do it but they can be stored in a safe location in case of disaster. External drives are often supplied with software to make backing up easy or see our Free Software section for suitable programs.

Backup to CD/DVD

This method is not widely used anymore as it is slow compared to other methods.

Online Backup

This is becoming very popular. It allows automatic backup of data to external systems over a high speed Internet connection. Your data is safe in case of disaster. Very large files can take a long time to backup. Companies that provide this service include Mozy, EVault, Idrive-E and Carbonite. Your high speed Internet provider may also have this service available.