Backing Up Your Computer
I know this is long, but if one or two of you find it useful, it was worth it.
I was working on a customer's computer the other night and he mentioned that he ghosts his hard drive every month religiously. While ghosting or imaging your hard drive is a good idea, doing it frequently is NOT. If you develop a problem with your operating system and you ghost it to your backup, the next thing you might be doing is the old format C and reload Windows routine. I was there because he had a problem; luckily he had not yet copied the problem over to his backup drive. We were able to fix his machine in about an hour. This would have been a lot quicker if he was set up a little differently.
There are probably as many theories about backing up your computer as there are computers in Sun City. I am old school and firmly believe that "Personal Data" and "Operating System" are two different and separate entities. I keep them on separate drives again, old school, that's the way we did it on the main frames.
I back up my "Personal Data" often. I am an amateur photographer and I back up my pictures to CD as soon as I have sorted them and thrown away the ones I don't want. I back up my "Operating System" only after I have made a significant change to the computer and FULLY tested every program on the computer to make sure I have not introduced any problems.
Believe it or not, software packages from different manufacturers do not always play well together. One of the easiest ways to mess up your computer is to play around with shareware. While there is a lot of good shareware out there that will make your life easier and save you lots of money, I strongly recommend testing it someplace else before loading it on your main computer. This can be on another computer that is set up similarly to your main computer or, if you have removable hard drives, on another hard drive that is an image of your main hard drive.
Back to separating "Personal Data" and "Operating System".
Your first task is to prepare a place to store your Personal Data. Option 1 - As I said earlier, I strongly recommend a separate hard drive. That being said, this is not an option for about 98% of you. Option 2 - The next best option is a separate partition on your hard drive. This is not as difficult as it sounds, but should not be attempted by the faint of heart. Option 3 - is a new folder on your C drive, preferably named something simple like "_Data". The underscore will make it move to the top of your folder tree and make it easier to find.
Your next task is to determine what data is important to you, locate where it is stored and take control of it. If you don't know where it is, you can't manage it. Windows 2000 was the first windows operating system to lean towards making this easier to do. On Win2K and WinXP most of your personal data is stored in your profile and it is a simple matter to move it someplace else. To relocate your "My Documents" folder all you have to do is right click on it, click on properties and then click on the Move button. For most of us, this covers 95% of our personal data. I recommend making a new folder (called "MyDocs" or something to that effect) at the new location before you try to move your My Documents folder, otherwise there is a good possibility that you will end up with your documents scattered in a folder one level up from where you thought they would be. This is just a little quirk in the process that the uninitiated sometimes fall into.
I know there are a lot of Quicken users out there. Older versions of Quicken stored the data in the Program Files folder. What I do is make two folders in the My Documents folder called "Quicken Data" and "Quicken Backups". Then open Quicken and save your data to the new data folder and perform a quicken backup pointed to the backup folder. The next time you open Quicken, you will be using the data in the new Data folder.
Another thing that some people find important is their Favorites. This is another thing that is very easy to move. Right click on Start, left click on explore. This will take you into the start menu in your particular profile. If you look up a few lines on the left side of the explorer window, you will see a yellow star next to the word Favorites. This is where your individual favorites are stored. Right click on this folder and drag it to the Data Drive, Partition, or folder. Release the right mouse button and left click on "Move". The operating system and Internet Explorer are smart enough to know that you have moved this folder and will automatically use it in the future. If you do a Copy rather than a Move, you have just created a backup of your favorites but you will continue to use the older folder when using Internet Explorer.
Netscape, Maxthon and Firefox probably have similar possibilities.
E-Mail If you use Outlook Express, make a new folder in the Data Drive, Partition, or Folder and name it OEData or something to that effect. Open OE and click on Tools, Options, Maintenance. Then click on Store Folder and Change. Click on Browse and browse to the new location. Select it and click on OK. You will get a message that the change will not take effect until you close and reopen OE. Close and reopen OE. Walla you just took control of your mail! If you use Outlook, call me it is almost as easy. The address book is a different matter. In Outlook, the address book moves with the mail. In Outlook express, this is not the case. The OE Address Book is actually a Windows entity rather than an OE entity. The only way I know to MOVE it is to follow the directions in this article:
http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/tips/movewab.htm
Again, this is not for the faint of heart. A safer solution is to back up your address book. Make a new folder in the Data Drive, Partition, or folder and name it AddBookBackup or something to that effect. Open OE and the open Address Book. Click on File, Export, Address Book (WAB). In the new window, browse to the new folder you just created and give enter an appropriate name in the "File Name:" line. Click Save. Remember that this is a backup and you should repeat it after making significant changes to your operational Address Book.
Other Things? What else is important to you that is not part of the operating system? Identify it and if it is movable, prep for the move and move it to the new data location. If in doubt, call me and we can research it.
Now that you have separated your "Personal Data" form your "Operating System", how do we back it all up?
"Operating System" - In order to be worth doing, it needs to be simple. I recommend using Ghost, Drive Image or Acronis to make an image to CD or File or a duplicate disk of your main operating system disk. If your personal data is just a folder on this disk, oh well, you just backed it up too. Take this image or duplicate disk and put it in a safe place not to be touched unless you have a problem or you need to update it after making a significant change to your computer AND you have verified that you have not introduced a problem to your system.
"Personal Data" This changes much more frequently and you need to determine how often you need to back it up. Again, there are lots of tools from Windows Backup to Imaging software that can be used. Use whatever you have and whenever you desire just back up the new "Data" location. If you have identified any program data like a photo album program that is not amenable to storing the albums in your Data location then you will have to back that up separately.
Hope this helps.
Chuck
========================================================
A reply from Rene. He adds a few good points.
Chuck,
This is a very good rendering. Congratulations. From my own main frame experience all I may add is that, when members chose and learn their backup preference, that they make sure that the backup works and that the files are really restored. Also that when files and folders are moved that they really are. The safest way for me is to get out of what I am doing and use Windows explorer to verify that the folder and its contents are where they should be.
Also as I do a lot of photo work, when JPEG images are created, it is a good idea to do a quick check to be sure that the result (Ex after compression) is still what was expected. This is where "View as a slide show" can speed up the checking.
I would suggest that your write up be posted in the Handout Section of our Club web site for reference. If it is agreeable with you, I would like to post it on my Media Conversion web site.
Thank you Renι Terlet
I was working on a customer's computer the other night and he mentioned that he ghosts his hard drive every month religiously. While ghosting or imaging your hard drive is a good idea, doing it frequently is NOT. If you develop a problem with your operating system and you ghost it to your backup, the next thing you might be doing is the old format C and reload Windows routine. I was there because he had a problem; luckily he had not yet copied the problem over to his backup drive. We were able to fix his machine in about an hour. This would have been a lot quicker if he was set up a little differently.
There are probably as many theories about backing up your computer as there are computers in Sun City. I am old school and firmly believe that "Personal Data" and "Operating System" are two different and separate entities. I keep them on separate drives again, old school, that's the way we did it on the main frames.
I back up my "Personal Data" often. I am an amateur photographer and I back up my pictures to CD as soon as I have sorted them and thrown away the ones I don't want. I back up my "Operating System" only after I have made a significant change to the computer and FULLY tested every program on the computer to make sure I have not introduced any problems.
Believe it or not, software packages from different manufacturers do not always play well together. One of the easiest ways to mess up your computer is to play around with shareware. While there is a lot of good shareware out there that will make your life easier and save you lots of money, I strongly recommend testing it someplace else before loading it on your main computer. This can be on another computer that is set up similarly to your main computer or, if you have removable hard drives, on another hard drive that is an image of your main hard drive.
Back to separating "Personal Data" and "Operating System".
Your first task is to prepare a place to store your Personal Data. Option 1 - As I said earlier, I strongly recommend a separate hard drive. That being said, this is not an option for about 98% of you. Option 2 - The next best option is a separate partition on your hard drive. This is not as difficult as it sounds, but should not be attempted by the faint of heart. Option 3 - is a new folder on your C drive, preferably named something simple like "_Data". The underscore will make it move to the top of your folder tree and make it easier to find.
Your next task is to determine what data is important to you, locate where it is stored and take control of it. If you don't know where it is, you can't manage it. Windows 2000 was the first windows operating system to lean towards making this easier to do. On Win2K and WinXP most of your personal data is stored in your profile and it is a simple matter to move it someplace else. To relocate your "My Documents" folder all you have to do is right click on it, click on properties and then click on the Move button. For most of us, this covers 95% of our personal data. I recommend making a new folder (called "MyDocs" or something to that effect) at the new location before you try to move your My Documents folder, otherwise there is a good possibility that you will end up with your documents scattered in a folder one level up from where you thought they would be. This is just a little quirk in the process that the uninitiated sometimes fall into.
I know there are a lot of Quicken users out there. Older versions of Quicken stored the data in the Program Files folder. What I do is make two folders in the My Documents folder called "Quicken Data" and "Quicken Backups". Then open Quicken and save your data to the new data folder and perform a quicken backup pointed to the backup folder. The next time you open Quicken, you will be using the data in the new Data folder.
Another thing that some people find important is their Favorites. This is another thing that is very easy to move. Right click on Start, left click on explore. This will take you into the start menu in your particular profile. If you look up a few lines on the left side of the explorer window, you will see a yellow star next to the word Favorites. This is where your individual favorites are stored. Right click on this folder and drag it to the Data Drive, Partition, or folder. Release the right mouse button and left click on "Move". The operating system and Internet Explorer are smart enough to know that you have moved this folder and will automatically use it in the future. If you do a Copy rather than a Move, you have just created a backup of your favorites but you will continue to use the older folder when using Internet Explorer.
Netscape, Maxthon and Firefox probably have similar possibilities.
E-Mail If you use Outlook Express, make a new folder in the Data Drive, Partition, or Folder and name it OEData or something to that effect. Open OE and click on Tools, Options, Maintenance. Then click on Store Folder and Change. Click on Browse and browse to the new location. Select it and click on OK. You will get a message that the change will not take effect until you close and reopen OE. Close and reopen OE. Walla you just took control of your mail! If you use Outlook, call me it is almost as easy. The address book is a different matter. In Outlook, the address book moves with the mail. In Outlook express, this is not the case. The OE Address Book is actually a Windows entity rather than an OE entity. The only way I know to MOVE it is to follow the directions in this article:
http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/tips/movewab.htm
Again, this is not for the faint of heart. A safer solution is to back up your address book. Make a new folder in the Data Drive, Partition, or folder and name it AddBookBackup or something to that effect. Open OE and the open Address Book. Click on File, Export, Address Book (WAB). In the new window, browse to the new folder you just created and give enter an appropriate name in the "File Name:" line. Click Save. Remember that this is a backup and you should repeat it after making significant changes to your operational Address Book.
Other Things? What else is important to you that is not part of the operating system? Identify it and if it is movable, prep for the move and move it to the new data location. If in doubt, call me and we can research it.
Now that you have separated your "Personal Data" form your "Operating System", how do we back it all up?
"Operating System" - In order to be worth doing, it needs to be simple. I recommend using Ghost, Drive Image or Acronis to make an image to CD or File or a duplicate disk of your main operating system disk. If your personal data is just a folder on this disk, oh well, you just backed it up too. Take this image or duplicate disk and put it in a safe place not to be touched unless you have a problem or you need to update it after making a significant change to your computer AND you have verified that you have not introduced a problem to your system.
"Personal Data" This changes much more frequently and you need to determine how often you need to back it up. Again, there are lots of tools from Windows Backup to Imaging software that can be used. Use whatever you have and whenever you desire just back up the new "Data" location. If you have identified any program data like a photo album program that is not amenable to storing the albums in your Data location then you will have to back that up separately.
Hope this helps.
Chuck
========================================================
A reply from Rene. He adds a few good points.
Chuck,
This is a very good rendering. Congratulations. From my own main frame experience all I may add is that, when members chose and learn their backup preference, that they make sure that the backup works and that the files are really restored. Also that when files and folders are moved that they really are. The safest way for me is to get out of what I am doing and use Windows explorer to verify that the folder and its contents are where they should be.
Also as I do a lot of photo work, when JPEG images are created, it is a good idea to do a quick check to be sure that the result (Ex after compression) is still what was expected. This is where "View as a slide show" can speed up the checking.
I would suggest that your write up be posted in the Handout Section of our Club web site for reference. If it is agreeable with you, I would like to post it on my Media Conversion web site.
Thank you Renι Terlet
