| Are you regularly backing up the hard drive on your | | | | backup |
| PC? | | | | of my hard drive. |
| It has been said that there are two kinds of people | | | | Every time my computer writes to the disk drive, it |
| ... | | | | actually |
| those who have had a hard disk crash and those | | | | writes the same data to two different disk drives. |
| who will. | | | | They |
| I'll tell you some easy ways to protect your | | | | are a mirror image of one another. |
| data.And I present my qualifications by saying that I | | | | Most Windows computers since Windows NT have |
| have experience | | | | had this |
| with data storage and backup. | | | | capability.The first, and most painful part, is to get |
| And you know the definition of experience right? | | | | two hard drives |
| Experience is what you get when you didn't get | | | | in your system. |
| what you wanted!Let me begin by saying that I have | | | | I usually buy my computers that way, but |
| used many different | | | | I have added hard drives later. |
| kinds of backup devices over the years. | | | | It's not exorbitantly expensive though. |
| I have used cassette tapes, floppy disks, tape | | | | Hard drives, even large hard drives, are reasonably |
| cartridges, | | | | priced these days. |
| disk cartridges, writable CDs, writable DVDs, and | | | | It's usually best to have the two hard drives the |
| external drives. | | | | same size |
| And I still recommend some form of this kind of | | | | (or you waste space in some form). |
| backup | | | | And I like to have the drives from the same |
| today. | | | | manufacturer |
| For today's high-capacity disk drives, you can't go | | | | (but maybe I'm just anal). |
| wrong by backing up, at the least, your critical data | | | | I say painful, because you, or someone will have to |
| on some external media. | | | | open up your |
| Because even if you don't use your PC to store | | | | PC and put a second drive in if doesn't already have |
| sensitive | | | | one. |
| personal or financial data, there are still | | | | If you don't feel qualified to do this, check with your |
| configuration settings for your PC you may not | | | | nearest PC store. |
| want to lose.Now you can buy hardware and | | | | Most will do it for you, for a fee, or for free if you |
| software that automatically starts backups | | | | buy |
| and cycles backup media in and out of the backup | | | | the hard disk there. |
| device as necessary. | | | | They may even perform the next step which is to |
| But that tends to be pricy and best left to servers. | | | | set up the mirror.After that, you go to the Control |
| I'll leave that topic for another time.If your system | | | | Panel, select Administrative Tools, |
| has a drive that supports writable CDs | | | | then select Computer Management, then click on |
| or DVDs you can manually backup your hard drive | | | | Disk Management. |
| on this | | | | You right-click on the existing or "old" volume and |
| type of media. | | | | select "Add Mirror", then |
| Writable CDs and DVDs can hold from 650 | | | | right-click on the new disk that will host the mirror |
| megabytes (MB) | | | | and select "Add Mirror". |
| up to 4 gigabtyes (GB) and more of data. | | | | This will establish a mirror and initially copy the |
| Your CD or DVD writer probably came with | | | | data from the "old" drive to the "new" mirror. |
| software that | | | | Thereafter, the |
| lets you drag copies of data from the hard drive | | | | data is automatically written to both drives when |
| to the CD or DVD drive folder. | | | | changes or updates |
| Or it may even include some automatic backup | | | | occur. |
| software. | | | | You can also view the status of your mirrored |
| One disadvantage of CDs and even DVDs is that | | | | volumes to make sure the |
| hard | | | | mirrors are healthy and all your data is backed up. |
| drives today typically won't fit on one of these. | | | | On Windows systems you may not see the options |
| With hard drives in the range of 10-200GB are | | | | for mirrors until |
| common. | | | | you have a new unused drive in your system on |
| And it's not unusual to see 250GB drives now. | | | | which you can create a mirror. |
| Another disadvantage is the write speed. | | | | There are detailed instructions for your version of |
| Even with high-speed CD or DVD writers it can take | | | | Windows |
| a long while.Another option is an external disk drive. | | | | on Microsoft's site.I recommend to all my friends to |
| Large sizes are available which makes it possible | | | | set up mirrored disks. |
| to backup your entire hard drive in many cases. | | | | I've had a couple of friends call to tell me they had a |
| And the hard disk drives are very fast. | | | | |
| You can copy an entire drive quickly.However many | | | | a hard disk crash. |
| people find it difficult to make data backups | | | | Instead of a catastophic loss of data, this turned |
| on a regular schedule. | | | | into a minor inconvenience while we recovered |
| I'm a people! I mean I'm a person and I just can't | | | | the data from the other disk. |
| seem to make the time for backing up my data.So | | | | They expressed undying gratitude and told me they |
| I'll tell you what I do. | | | | would be eternally indebted ... |
| I use mirrors! Not smoke and mirrors ... just mirrors. | | | | because they couldn't pay me anything!What will |
| In my machine I have two hard disk drives ... not to | | | | your reaction be when you have that hard disk |
| double | | | | crash? |
| my storage capacity, but to provide a continuous | | | | |