What To Back Up:
To ensure that your backups are performed properly, in a way that ensures that you are protected without taking so much of your time that they become a chore, you must determine what files to back up and how often to back them up. Some files will need to be backed up more often than others. This section takes a look at what files you will want to include in your backup routine, and also the ones you will usually want to exclude.
How To Back Up:
While backing up your data is in some ways a simple matter--"just do it!"--there are in fact some special techniques that can come into play to make backups more effective and less of a hassle. This section takes a look at specific techniques and considerations for performing backups, some of which you might not think of. This includes a discussion of backup timing, scheduling, media storage, and how to ensure that your backups work, and will protect you in the event that you need them.
Boot Disks:
A very important, but separate, part of your backup strategy should be the creation and maintenance of boot disks. These disks are used in the event of an emergency with your system (they are in fact sometimes called emergency boot disks). They are designed to enable you to quickly and easily correct large-scale software and operating system problems with your PC, and to allow you to reconfigure or update your system without being totally dependent on the contents of your hard disk.
This section discusses boot disks and how they work, and provides details on how to make and use them effectively.
Note: I am referring to recovery here from the loss of an entire system; if you need to restore just a file or group of files, simply run your backup software's restore facility, select the file(s) to be restored, and follow the directions.
Depending on how you did your backups and what software you used, recovery can be very simple or a great deal of work. This section takes a look at recovery procedures in some detail. (You may also change your mind about what type of backup methodology you want to use, based on what you read here.)
To ensure that your backups are performed properly, in a way that ensures that you are protected without taking so much of your time that they become a chore, you must determine what files to back up and how often to back them up. Some files will need to be backed up more often than others. This section takes a look at what files you will want to include in your backup routine, and also the ones you will usually want to exclude.
How To Back Up:
While backing up your data is in some ways a simple matter--"just do it!"--there are in fact some special techniques that can come into play to make backups more effective and less of a hassle. This section takes a look at specific techniques and considerations for performing backups, some of which you might not think of. This includes a discussion of backup timing, scheduling, media storage, and how to ensure that your backups work, and will protect you in the event that you need them.
Boot Disks:
A very important, but separate, part of your backup strategy should be the creation and maintenance of boot disks. These disks are used in the event of an emergency with your system (they are in fact sometimes called emergency boot disks). They are designed to enable you to quickly and easily correct large-scale software and operating system problems with your PC, and to allow you to reconfigure or update your system without being totally dependent on the contents of your hard disk.
This section discusses boot disks and how they work, and provides details on how to make and use them effectively.
Disaster Recovery:
Disaster recovery refers to the process of restoring a system after a "disaster". There are many different definitions of what a "disaster" is, but for our purposes this simply refers to any situation where you need to recreate a system after a hard disk failure.Note: I am referring to recovery here from the loss of an entire system; if you need to restore just a file or group of files, simply run your backup software's restore facility, select the file(s) to be restored, and follow the directions.
Depending on how you did your backups and what software you used, recovery can be very simple or a great deal of work. This section takes a look at recovery procedures in some detail. (You may also change your mind about what type of backup methodology you want to use, based on what you read here.)
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