Backing up Your Files
by Jim Young
There are several ways to back up the files on your computer. Below
are three methods, a simple method for beginning users, one for intermediate
users and one for advanced users and businesses.
You should not backup your software, only the data files used with the
software. Instead of backing up the software, keep the original disks
you received with the software, so that you can restore the software
at any time.
Simple Backup
The easiest method of backup for your files is to keep the files in
a single folder, such as My Documents. Each time any file in the folder
is changed, such as by downloading email, etc., copy the entire folder
to a removable disk before turning off the computer. To copy a folder,
use Windows Explorer and drag the folder to the ZIP drive or drag the
folder to the CD Writer, whichever you use.
The files should be copied to a removable media disk, so that they
can be easily loaded onto another computer, such as a friend's computer,
if your computer should crash. Two such removable media devices are
ZIP drives, available from IOMega Corporation, and CD writers, available
from any one of several venders, such as Hewlett Packard, Sony, etc.
A CD writer drive is inexpensive and can write both to re-writable CDs
and to write-once CDR media, which will retain data for many years.
Floppy disks are not adequate for backup.
You should use at least three(3) backup media, rotating the media
each time you back up. For example, label the backup disks 1, 2, and
3. On the first day, use media number 1. Use media number 2 the second
time your backup, and then use media number 3 the third time. Then reuse
media number 1 the fourth time, and so on. In this manner, if the backup
media has a problem, you always have the backup from the last two other
times.
To restore from a backup, simply locate the file on the last backup
media and copy it to the My Documents folder. If the last backup media
is corrupt, or the file on that media is corrupt, use the next to last
backup media.
Intermediate Backup
You should keep your data files in a limited number of folders and
use a data compression utility such as WinZip, available from WinZip.com
for $29. Using compression saves space on your backup media, and makes
it easier to track dates of the backup.
Before turning off your computer each day, compress all data files
from all the folders that hold data, using WinZip, to a backup file.
In WinZip, be sure to use the "Save Full Path Info", so you
know where each file was located. Also, you should include subfolders
from the folders being backed up. To back up all files in a folder,
open the folder in the "Add" box, then click "Add with
wildcards". To backup only a few of the files, select each file
and click "Add". With WinZip, you can copy any number of files
from any number of folders to the same backup file. Below is a screen
shot of backing up using WinZip to copy files from one folder:
Once the backup file is created, copy the backup file to a removable
media device. You should use at least seven backup media disks, one
for each day of the week. Have a specific disk for each day, and label
them for the day. Thus, on Monday, you copy the backup file to the Monday
disk, on Tuesday, copy to the Tuesday disk, etc.
To restore from a backup, start WinZip and open the backup file on
the last disk that was used for backup. Click the "Use folder names"
box, select the file, click the Extract button, and WinZip will copy
the file back to the folder from which it was lost. If the last backup
disk is corrupt, or the file on that disk is corrupt, use the next to
last backup disk. The following screen shows using WinZip to extract
a file:
Click the "Use folder names" option and in the "Extract
to:" box, list the drive that contained the folder and the file.
WinZip will put the file back into the same folder from which it was
extracted. You can extract several files at a time, by selecting them
the same way files are selected in Windows Explorer.
Advanced Backup
For advanced users, I recommend partitioning your hard drive to create
a "D" drive, and keep all your data files on the D Drive.
Alternatively, you can create a "Data" folder on the C drive
and keep all your data files in the Data folder. Create a backup task
using scheduled tasks, to backup the entire D Drive, or Data folder,
each day automatically (although you do have to remember to put the
backup disk in the drive before the scheduled time for the backup).
You should use at least 10 different backup disks, and rotate the
disks through a two week (10 business day) cycle, such that you always
have backups of the last 10 days in your office. Either ZIP or CD/RW
media is a good choice for the daily backups.
Once per week, you should copy the backup file to another media, preferably
CD/R, and take it to another physical location, so that you have a backup
in case the backup files in your office are no longer available, for
example after a fire. One good method of doing this is to back up each
night to ZIP, re-writable CD, or other removable media, then, each Friday,
copy the backup from the previous night to a CDR disk media, or other
removable media, and take this media to a bank safe deposit box. You
can keep the backup media for as long as you want, but you should keep
it at least for several months. This is a very inexpensive backup, since
CDR disks typically cost less than one dollar each, thus for approximately
$50, you have a whole year of backup data.
WinZip has a command line option that can be run from the Windows task
scheduler to perform the backup automatically. The best way to create
the backup is to build the backup file into a folder on the C drive,
for example in a folder named "Backups", then copy the backup
file to the removable disk, while retaining a copy in the Backups folder
on the C drive. Thus, you need to create a DOS batch job for the backup,
and it contains commands to delete the old backup file, run WinZip to
create a new backup file, and copy the backup file to the removable
media. This DOS batch file is created using a text editor, such as NotePad
or WordPad.
The batch file contains the following statements:
del C:\Backups\*.zip
del C:\Backups\*.log
C:\WINZIP\WZZIP.EXE -p -r -whs -ybc C:\backups\Jim_D D:\*.* >>
Jim.log
copy C:\Backups\Jim_D.zip e:
The first statement above deletes the previous backup file, and the
second statement deletes the log file created previously by WinZip.
The next runs WinZip with several options:
-p - This option causes WinZip to store folder names
-r - This option causes WinZip to include all sub folders
-whs - This option causes WinZip to exclude hidden and system files
-ybc - This option causes WinZip to not display prompts
The backup file is specified as "C:\backups\Jim_D" (WinZip
will add ".zip" to the name)
The "D:\*.*" causes WinZip to backup the entire D drive
The ">> Jim.Log" causes WinZip to create a log file
named Jim.log in the same folder as the backup file. This is optional,
but it helps you to determine what caused an error, if an error occurs.
If you create this file, you must include the delete *.log statement
above.
The last statement in the batch file copies the backup file to the removable
disk.
After creating the DOS batch file, name it RunBackups.bat and store
it in the top folder of the C drive.
Once you have created the batch file, you must schedule it to run
at the desired time. To set up a scheduled task:
In Windows 98:
Double click My Computer, and double click Scheduled tasks to display
the Scheduled Tasks window.
In Windows ME and XP:
Click Start, Programs, Accessories, system Tools, Scheduled Tasks
Once the Scheduled Tasks window is open, double click Add Scheduled
Task to display the Scheduled Task Wizard.
Now click Next in the Scheduled task wizard to display the screen that
allows you to display the program to be scheduled:
Click theBrowse button and locate the RunBackups.bat file and select
it. This brings up the next screen in the Wizard:
Click the Weekly button to allow you to select the days of the week
to run the file. Click Next to display the next window in the Wizard:
Select the time you want to run the RunBackups file and then select
the days of the week you want to run the file. Click Next to display
the next window in the Wizard:
You have completed scheduling the file to run on the selected days
at the desired time. You should click the "Open advanced properties..."
box and then click Finish. The advanced properties window shows another
option that should be set:
You should set the "Stop the task..." setting to 20-30 minutes.
The default setting is 72 hours!
You need to remember to place the correct disk in the drive before
the scheduled time of the backup each day.
Networked Systems:
If you are backing up all systems to a single CD, create the delete
and WinZip commands in a separate batch file on each computer being
backed up, and schedule them on each computer. Then create the copy
of all files on the computer that has the CD writer and schedule it
to run there. Be sure to allow sufficient time for the backup to complete
on the slowest computer before running the copy.
Potential Problems:
Sometimes the delete or copy commands hang and do not complete.
In Windows XP Home Edition, I have encountered problems with XP wanting
a password before running. If you do not have a password assigned, in
the Home Edition, there is no way to tell XP to allow blank passwords.
This may work OK in the Professional Edition, because there is a way
to allow blank passwords in that Edition.
