Backup
From TSG Library of Knowledge
Backing up is a vital process for all people who use computers. Though it can be an annoying and painful process to do manually, if set-up with backup software, it can be an automated, daily task.
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Backup Strategies
- Manual
- Manual backup is good for backing up certain files of high importance, but often takes long and is tiresome. When manually backing up data, you copy files and folders to a storage medium (like a CD or hard drive) using the operating system's file explorer. Whenever you change a file, you must copy it to the backup again. When you need to restore data from a manual backup, you copy the files from the backup to their place on the drive. The only advantage to manual backup is that you are not backing up the operating system.
- Full + Incremental
- In Full + Reverse Incremental, at first a full backup of the drive is created. Then, changed files are added to the backup, creating different versions of a file. When you restore from the backup, you can restore from different dates. You can also restore older versions of individual files.
Backup Mediums
- Hard Drives
- The most popular form of backup, hard drives are great for local, constantly-modified backups. They are cheap, easy to use, and versatile. Hard drives are not well suited for long-term and off-site backup, but if you check the drives every few months and verify that they are not corrupted, you can still use them.
- CDs and DVDs
- Optical media is perfect for off-site, long-term storage of important data. Since most CDs and DVDs can only be written to once, you can store mission-critical data without worrying about it being erased. CDs and DVDs that can be written to only once (CD-Rs and DVD-Rs) have a shelf life of about 4 years.
- Online Services
- Online backups are an increasingly popular method of backing up your information to servers on the Internet. Depending on how fast your Internet connection is and how much data you're backing up, the initial backup can take hours (if not days) to upload files. However, once the data is uploaded, most online backup programs use incremental backups (see above) so that only changed files are uploaded.
Backup Software
Backup software is critical to maintaining an up-to-date backup. Backup software often has features like compressing data, so it takes up less space, and encrypting that data with a password. There are two popular types of backup software, imaging software and plain backup software. Imaging software takes an actual image of what the data on your drive looks like and saves it to another hard drive or disc. If your hard drive dies, you can then copy the image back over to your hard drive (sometimes using the program to do this) and your computer is completely restored to the time the backup was taken. There are also plain backup utilities that copy files, folders, and sometimes a whole disk over to another storage medium. After choosing any type of backup software, read the user guide and understand how the backup and restore process works for that particular program.
Free and Open Source
- DriveImage XML - A straightforward imaging program. [1]
- Clonezilla - A fast imaging program. [2]
- Cobian Backup - Cobian backup is a powerful Windows backup utility. [3]
- Carbon Copy Cloner - A powerful and popular OS X backup utility. [4]
- SuperDuper! - SuperDuper! is a simple imaging app that creates bootable backups. [5]
For Pay
- Acronis True Image - A $50 popular and easy to use imaging program without encryption. [6]
- "Carbonite" - A popular online backup service for around $50/year designed for home users. [7]
- .Mac Backup - Though only 10GB, Mac Backup is built into OS X and backs up online. [8]
- Norton Ghost - Norton's $70 imaging and plain backup program that also lacks encryption. [9]
- Paragon Drive Backup - A feature-filled imaging utility. $30. [10]
- Time Machine - Built into Leopard, Time Machine is a beautiful but basic backup utility. [11]
