Originally posted in July, 2000
You turn on the radio on the way home from work and find out that a new virus has just swept across the country - and it’s main purpose is to erase your hard drive. You know that someone at home is using the computer right now and most likely, that […]
Written by Raven on October 3rd, 2006 with
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Originally posted in July, 2000
You turn on the radio on the way home from work and find out that a new virus has just swept across the country - and it’s main purpose is to erase your hard drive. You know that someone at home is using the computer right now and most likely, that virus is sitting in your email waiting to take its toll. What do you do?
Well, you can either panic and cause a ten-car pile up when you swerve across lanes while digging for your cellphone, or you can smile and say “Go ahead. Make my day. My machine needed a good wiping anyway, it was getting cluttered. So give it your best shot, virus boy!”
What’s the difference between the person scrambling to call home and the person smugly chuckling at the radio announcer?
Smug man backs up his data on a regular basis.
If you’re going to use a computer, you have to back up your data.
“But I don’t open any .exe files!”
It doesn’t matter. The new breed of viruses don’t come with .exe files. A brownout from the local power company can hose your machine. Your hard drive can decide to move on to greener pastures without you. I’ve even heard of one customer who ate next to his computer every night. He had a terrible ant problem. Eventually, the ants thought the inside of the computer case looked like a neat place to go hunting for dinner - and they ate through every cable in the system. You never know what might happen, so I’ll say it again. You have to back up your data.
What’s the best way to back up?
Writable CD Roms. They can handle an incredible amount of data and they’re pretty hard to destroy. My 2.5 yr old abuses his learning CDs in ways that make me cringe, and they still work fine.
Next would be the new “large floppies” - Zip drives, Jazz drives, Orb drives, etc. These big hard-cased floppies hold anywhere from 100 megs of data to 2 gigs. They’re bigger, so they’re harder to lose. You still have to be careful about putting them near magnets, though. (This includes your speakers! Don’t ever put any type of floppy on top of unshielded speakers!)
After large floppies comes small floppies. They don’t hold much, just 1.4 megs of data; but that’s plenty of room for a lot of pictures or small files. They do tend to get misplaced quite often, though.
Last, in my opinion, are tape drives. You can buy a tape drive that will back up an entire server. However, coming from the generation that thought the Walkman was the coolest thing on earth, I know how easily tape can go sour. I wouldn’t use a tape drive if it was my last resort. Then again - that’s just me. Let’s just say I’ve thrown out enough cassettes with their ribbon innards blowing in the breeze that I don’t trust the insides of a tape drive to be clean enough to keep that tape from stretching, ripping, or crinkling.
What do I back up?
Anything that you use on a daily basis. Period. This might include:
How do I back up?
Microsoft has an automatic backup utility - don’t use it. It’s too long, complicated, and unreliable to even go into. As usual, the best way to do it, is to do it by hand.
Remember - Copy, don’t Cut. You want to make a backup of the data, not move it all together. If you can’t find a program, do a Start/Find/Files or Folders for it.
For programs like ICQ, etc., you just need to access those programs’ folders on your hard drive and find out where the data is stored. In ICQ it will be a folder named DB, DB99, DB99b, 2000a, etc. You’re looking for a database folder that has your UIN (icq number) attached to different types of files: .dat, .idx, and .msg. Copy this entire folder onto your backup. If you need to reinstall ICQ after a glitch or a reformat, install the main program first, go through the registration, then turn ICQ off. Replace the database directory it’s made with your backup. Start ICQ back up again, and your contact list should be there.
Favorites/Bookmarks
Your IE Favorites are stored in a system folder within your Windows directory. Therefore, you can’t copy the folder itself. Make a new folder on your backup disk and name it something like Shortcuts. Then open the Favorites folder, copy everything that is inside of it, and paste into your new Shortcuts folder.
If you have IE 5 you can turn your Favorites list into an html page of links. File/Import-Export, then just follow the directions and export as a file and put it on your desktop or straight onto your backup disk.
For Netscape, find your Netscape folder. Then dig down through it until you find bookmarks.htm. Copy this file onto your backup. In Opera and other browsers it’s almost an identical process; sniff around a little and you’ll find your bookmarks file.
When you need to restore, simply replace the existing folder or file with your backup; or in the case of ‘export’, just ‘import’ that backed up file instead.
For Outlook and Outlook Express, you can do both in one fell swoop. C:\Windows\Application Data. Backup this entire folder and after reloading Windows, replace the entire folder.
Netscape - Identity/Preferences/Mail and Newsgroups/Mail Servers. At the bottom of this window you’ll see where Netscape keeps your mail. Go to that folder and copy the whole thing. To restore, simply replace the folder with your copy.
Eudora, Poco, and other email programs also let you specify where you keep your mail. Simply browse through the preferences until you find where that is, then go copy that folder and everything in it.
Address Books
For Outlook and Outlook Express, you most likely got your address book (or contact list) when you copied Application Data. But, just to be safe, or even to load it onto another machine… do a Find for “*.wab” (no quotes). Up will pop all of your address books for every identity on your computer. Make note of where they are, and copy them. After restoring, simply replace.
Again, with other programs like Netscape, Eudora, and Poco; it’s a matter of where you’ve specified to keep this data. Sniff through your program and find out, then copy it.
The My Documents Folder
My Documents, like Favorites, is a system folder. So you’ll need to copy the contents of the folder, not the folder itself. Have fun with it, name your backup folder something like My Junk.
Digital Photographs
This one is simple enough… find those pictures on your hard drive, copy them. Never trust your computer with something as precious as digital photographs that can’t be replaced. Always have a double somewhere. You do not want to lose that great pic of your first grandchild smiling just because you assumed your hard drive would always be there for you.
Installation Programs For Files You’ve Downloaded
Sure, you could always go download these again, but if you’re on a dial-up connection this will take a lot of unnecessary time. You should be saving all of your downloads to a specific folder anyway, so they’ll all be in the same place. If you do this, just copy that folder onto your backup. Ideas for this would be setup files for ICQ, RealPlayer, Adobe Acrobat Reader, WinAmp, Eudora, etc… anything you really use and don’t have on CD.
Anything Else That’s Important To You!
Obviously I can’t go through every program available in the world. Take the time to browse through your hard drive and look in each folder and see what programs are there. (You’ll find many still hanging around that you don’t even use anymore - don’t delete them! Uninstall them instead then delete their skeletons.) Look in those programs’ Help files to see if there is any info on how to back them up. If there isn’t, email the program’s manufacturer, ask friends that have those programs, or just back up the whole folder when in doubt and replace after installing the program when you restore.
Now that you’ve backed up your data, keep it in a safe place. These aren’t disks that you want your children getting a hold of, or that might be easily misplaced. A shoebox in the top of your closet is safe; just throwing the disk into a desk drawer is not. You might even want to put them into a fire safe with your important papers and files.
Either way, the only way to not worry about your data is to make sure you back it up frequently. You might even want to geek out completely and make a ghost copy of your hard drive, or have a second hard drive with the identical information… but that’s not necessary. Just use some common sense and never assume that what you have today will be there tomorrow, and you’ll be fine.
Written by Raven on October 3rd, 2006 with
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