Backups, backups, backups, everywhere you hear of backups. That is both a good and bad thing since backups can’t be stressed enough. You have heard enough about backups from a server stand point, but what about the most important machine, yours! I’m talking about your local computer, the one that warms your house in the winter. I have been into computers for over a decade and more importantly, I have those same files from all those years. How? Backups!!! Here is how I’ve done it.
Simply put, extra hard drives. Before the years of cheap consumer backup solutions I would simply make a 1:1 copy of my data from drive to drive. Forget about compression and zipping, pure and simple copy/paste. Sure it was more expensive, but I never trusted any other program with my data. If it was there and I could browse through it, I knew it was okay. Over the years I have gotten smarter as I learned some tricks of the trade. One of the most important thing you can do is put Windows and your programs on 1 partition (or 1 hard drive). I say this because I have tried making Windows one partition and “program files” another, only to be in a worse off place when it comes time to recover from a disaster. There are too many programs out there that embed into the registry and if you have a new OS but old programs, things won’t work right. I will go elaborate on this later. So whats the big deal? I’m talking about those unrecoverable party pictures down in New Orleans, or the large MP3 collection. Keeping those safe are whats more important.
Recently, I’ve gotten smart(er). What I do with my personal computer is have three dedicated hard drives. One hard drive for the OS and programs, one drive as a buffer drive, where I temporarily store anything new that is incoming (optional), and most important, the third data drive. It’s my largest drive in my personal computer. TIP: On this drive I have the “My Documents” folder. So anytime I reload an OS, I simply right click “My Documents” and choose “change location” and point it to my docs on the data drive” Microsoft makes a simple tutorial on this. Mind you, my data drive has always been W:\. Why ‘W’? It’s way down in the list of letters to choose from so I don’t have to worry about plugging in too many flash drives. All my pictures, saved game files, taxes, and iTunes files are on W:\ so all I have to do is reference it if I have to reinstall anything. This has helped me a tremendous amount when having to reinstall simple programs like iTunes or some of my games. They already reference your “My Docs” folder and are ready to go. Anytime I get a new hard drive as a replacement, I simply copy 1:1 over to the new drive and relabel it W:\ and poof. Everything is back the way it was.
What about backing up that data drive though? A true god send, Acronis True image. Before, I said I would never trust anything with my data. I have tried so many different programs to keep a 1:1 synced backup. I fell upon Acronis True Image and they have saved my computer a number of times. No, I’m not getting paid to say this and no, I don’t work for them. I am a simple consumer like you. I take a snapshot of my C:\ and back it up onto my W:\. I then backup the W:\ off-site or onto another computer. That way, I have backups of backups and helps keep the cost down on the extra hard drives. I always keep a fresh base copy so I can roll all the way back if need be. A middle “got everything the way I want it” copy and lastly a “latest copy” This helps keep disk space and confusion down when it comes time to restore.
If you are thinking, “but Ben, RAID has proven itself on an enterprise level and at home blah blah…” RAID is not a backup solution! I use RAID on my NAS at home that houses my backups. Too many times have I seen RAID fail not because of a failed hard drive, but a bad controller card. Murphy’s Law at its best. However you backup your personal data is up to you. Just make sure it’s not on the same computer you need to restore.
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