Philip
Sun Nov 30 12:21:07 CST 2003
I'm posting below a copy of my reply to a similar posting elsewhere some
time ago. You're right to start thinking about this issue; I hope you're
not too dismayed by how complicated it can become.
One possibility I didn't mention is the GoBack product which comes alone or
as part of Norton Systemworks. If you have a machine that isn't too slow
and you have a good bit of spare disk space it can be a simple solution for
everything except a disk loss. Anyway, here's that post:
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I know of someone who lost four years' original research because they never
backed it up.... (shudder). On the other hand I (smug) once had a machine
fail just after a successful backup. (Phew!)
There are blunt-instrument approaches, like using Ghost to clone your entire
disk (or partition) and keeping the copy. Would you do that daily? For
more complex situations, a simple copy won't do. Some folk need finer
control, or daily versions for possible roll-back.
All versions of Windows support the "Archive Attribute", which is a flag set
when a file is created or changed. If you did a backup yesterday, and that
cleared the A-bit, then you only need to backup today the files which have
the A-bit set. So, you have four basic types of backup:
1) Baseline. Copy everything anyway, and clear all A-bits.
2) Differential. Copy only those files with the A-bit set, but don't clear
it. Advantage: you only need two backups to restore: the Baseline and (the
most recent) Differential. Diff. backups increase in size daily.
3) Incremental. Copy only those files with the A-bit set, and clear
A-bits. Incrementals are more economical on space, but you may need 30 of
them to restore if your last baseline was a month ago!
4) Copy. An "extra" backup of everything, without changing any A-bit
settings.
5) Daily. Just picks up files whose modification date matches the day in
question (nothing to do with the A-bit).
More to it than meets the eye, eh?
You'd also want to group files for the purposes of backup. Photos don't
have versions (unless you're editing them repeatedly) so I use the
Incremental approach for Photos, downloads, and other things that don't
change. For documents, spreadsheets, etc, I use Differential backups to
provide roll-back capability to various versions, but still need only two
backups for a complete restore. I do a baseline roughly every month, and
differentials at least weekly, feeling guilty all the while that I don't do
them daily.
I use the XP Pro built-in backup facility, and save backup sets (groupings
of files/folders) as "jobs". Different jobs are backed up in different
ways, depending on what they are. I don't think (?) you have backup in XP
home.
An alternative is
http://www.rdcomp.net/ezbackitup/index.php which I've
never used. (Free)
Another alternative is WinZip, which "understands" the Archive Attribute.
You can also group files by creating an archive and using the "Update" or
"Refresh" operations. A disadvantage of WinZip compared with dedicated
backup programs is that if a file is open (e.g. your Outlook store, which
may
be open because a background service is still running even though you've
shut down Outlook) then WinZip will mention that it couldn't copy it
somewhere deep in a long log file, so you'll miss it. XP Pro backup can
copy open files, as can any good backup program. My view is that WinZip is
fine for a home user, if you backup only after a fresh reboot, and make sure
no Outlook process is running. Try WinZip if you have it - you'll learn
what the issues are quite quickly, and then you can choose a backup program
if you still feel you need one. If you have the XP backup program, use
that - it works very well.
You have to find the files to backup. Outlook files (the .pst files are
most important) are (in XP) in
C:\Documents and Settings\Mouse\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
and
C:\Documents and Settings\Mouse\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook
and these locations may be hidden, depending on your settings in Windows
Explorer!
Some backup programs can also copy your "System State" (the Registry, and
other settings). Otherwise you'll be faced with a lot of reinstallation of
programs, settings, etc. if your hard drive is kaput. Passwords and other
authentication information need special attention.
Finally, once you have created your backup file (a huge compressed lump),
copy it to CD or DVD or a USB hard drive. Test the process regularly - it's
very common to find you've been creating unusable backups for months without
realising it, and guess when you'll find that out!
--
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## PH, London ##
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