Welcome to part 2 of our 3 part series in computer backups. Last month we talked about why backups are important and why you should have a backup strategy in place to protect your most important files. If missed last month’s newsletter, you can view it online in our blog by visiting http://blog.upgradeable.co.nz/2009/02/16/backing-up-your-computer/
Part 2 backup software, imaging and restoring Windows
As with all things in life, you get what you pay for. There is no one backup program or system that is perfect for everyone and every situation, but we can recommend some tools that are popular due to their ease of use and powerful features for the job at hand.
True Image by Acronis
We use the Workstation version of this software in our office because after trying several other alternatives, we feel that it is the best paid option for imaging computers. For the home office or personal computer, there is also a more affordable Home edition.
Why would we recommend a paid solution? The fact of the matter is, there are other alternatives out there, some of them free. But for most people (us included), there are more important things to spend your time on than fiddling with “free” software to do an important job like keeping your important files safe. True Image WORKS. It is reliable, fast and affordable. Most importantly it saves you time when disaster strikes.
Imaging refers to making an exact mirror copy (or cloning) of your entire hard drive. This includes your Windows operating system, your settings and files. The advantage of this method is you can freeze a copy of your computer at a time that you choose (e.g. right after your did a fresh install of Windows with all drivers and programs loaded and working, or just before you do a major update like upgrading from Windows XP to Vista). This means should the worst happen, you simply restore your image file and you’re back to where you started.
However, it is still recommended you supplement this method with regular interval backups as cloning your system can take several hours depending on how much information you need to backup. It also requires as much space as your original files take up to store the cloned image, however, True Image has built in file compression to reduce the overall size of the stored image.
True Image also has a built in feature to backup only files and folders that you choose instead of the entire system. You can choose to perform full, incremental or differential backups.
- Full backups – all chosen files and folders are copied. Uses the most space as it does not discriminate if the file has changed before backing it up.
- Incremental – only the actual changes since the last backup are saved (not the entire file) but this method uses the least amount of space
- Differential – uses less space than a full backup but more than an incremental one. Only saves the changes since the initial backup (useful for backups where you don’t need to keep multiple versions and only the most up to date copy of a file or files.
What if I don’t want to spend money on buying backup software?
Windows XP comes with a basic backup program. However it is limited to backing up your files and settings. It cannot clone your entire system to restore it in case of a complete system failure (Windows cannot start). To access under Windows XP, click on the Start button, then Programs, Accessories, System Tools and finally Backup. The built in wizard will walk you through creating backups and the options are similar to True Image.
In Vista, the backup tool is more powerful and allows cloning your computer as well. The tool is accessed by clicking on the Start button, then All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and finally Backup Status and Configuration. However there is a major disadvantage to using the Vista cloning tool.
That is you must first restore Vista using the original setup CD or DVD before you can restore your system from the cloned image. This can be time consuming as the True Image method creates a bootable CD that allows you to start up a completely blank computer to begin restoring your image file. Still, the tool is free and is a big improvement over the options that came with Windows XP.
So how often should I back up?
That depends on how much the information is worth to you. If you run a business from home, think in terms of how it would affect the business if you lost a days work? How about a week? A month?
If you are a student or home user, you will no doubt have collected a lot of personal photos, music and other files important to you. Would you be able to cope if all that information was gone? What about the time it would take to reinstall Windows, all your programs and customise those programs from scratch? By answering these questions, you can decide how often you need to backup your files and computer.
We have looked at a paid backup software solution and the free alternatives that come with Windows XP and Vista. There is not one tool that will suit everyone or cater for all scenarios. The important issue though, is to make sure you have up-to-date backups of your files and system. This is especially true if the computer is shared by several people such as the family PC where a lot of new software is constantly loaded into the system.
Any software, no matter how well written still has the potential to wreck a perfectly working system due to all the hardware and software combinations out there. Although the authors of software generally try to make sure their software is bug-free, they cannot test their software against every single permutation of hardware and software. This can lead to unforseen conflicts when the new software tries to access the system in a way that is unplanned by the software author, resulting in instability or other problems.
This is before we even consider other sources that can lead to potential system crashes such as faulty/failing hardware or viruses. Having proper backups of your files is the best solution to avoiding catastrophic loss of information. If you support this with an up-to-date cloned image of your entire system, it will save you a lot of time and stress when your computer eventually experiences some kind of failure.
Next month we round up our 3 part series (TBA).
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