Backing Up Your Hard Drive

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How do you back up your data? That depends on how paranoid you are and how complicated your data is. I'm very paranoid — my house burned down when I was ten and it left a permanent impression on my psyche. Nothing can be relied upon, and redundancy is our only hope.

Three Kinds of Backup

There are three reasons to back up your data:

  1. You are finished with the files and want a permanent record of what you did (archival backup).
  2. You are still using the files but want to be protected in case your computer crashes or is stolen (periodic backup).
  3. You are about to do something risky (i.e., rewrite your project proposal at three in the morning the night before it is due).

The different kinds of backup require completely different backup strategies, and this article only addresses periodic backup. For archival backup read Project Organization Basics. The third situation isn't actually 'backup' at all, it's revision management. A quick revision management scheme is to copy everything to the desktop in a dated folder.

Backing Up to CD

If you're like most people, you back using your computer's CD burner. There are software programs out there that will automate this, but I prefer to do things by hand1. Fire up your favorite CD burner and drag your entire home directory and your entire desktop (your home directory includes the desktop on a Mac so that second step is unnecessary) into a new CD. Delete the Music folder and the Projects (On CD)2 folder. Everything that's left should fit onto a CD (or two). Label the CDs with the date and put them in a CD Binder like the ones you get from Case Logic.

Now burn another copy and put them in sleeves or jewel cases. At your earliest convenience bring them to a friend across town3 and put them in a CD binder that she is storing for you.

Backing Up to Hard Drive

Hard drives are cheap these days, so it's worth getting three external drives — two 160GB drives with an external power supply and one smaller 20GB drive that draws its power from the USB or FireWire cable.

To make your backups, create a folder on the big external drive and name it with today's date. Drag in all the files described above (i.e., everything except Music and Projects (On CD) to make your backup. Repeat to copy the files to your small bus-powered drive, and at your earliest convenience take this across town to the big external drive that your friend is storing for you.

Backing Up via Email

Sometimes you're in a hurry and don't have time to back up properly. Or maybe you're willing to risk most of your files, but there are one or two that you can't live without.

No problem! Just email the files to yourself. As long as you leave the messages in your inbox the files are safely backed up on the email server. They are also accessible to anybody who hacks into the mail server, so use this strategy with care.

References

Other basic computer articles:

Other basic computer resources:

Notes

  1. I believe that automation and fancy software tools should only be used to save time, never to avoid thinking. If you don't know how to do the job yourself, then how can you be sure that the automated tool is doing the job correctly? Return to text.
  2. Don't know what the Projects (On CD) folder is? Go read Project Organization Basics. Return to text.
  3. Does this seem like too much work to you? Well, have you ever had your house burn down or be burglarized? I've had both happen. A backup that is in the same building as the computer isn't a real backup. Return to text.