Best Methods To Backup Files
Author: Tim Childree

As much as every computer wants to deny the inevitable, your
data is only as secure as your backups.  Every hard drive is
eventually going to fail (and malicious software frequently
targets data files), and you will lose years' worth of files,
documents, programs, and all other information that you have
kept and stored in your computer unless you have a good backup.
Following are some of the best methods of data backup that you
can use.

Internal Backup, One Disk

For a particularly large hard drive, the hard disk can be
partitioned so that one partition may be used as a repository of
backup data.  For this type of backup, you can use automatic
backup software, which will do daily backups of data you have
specified or a full backup of your active partitions.  You can
also manually copy your files from your active drive partition
to your backup drive partition as long as you do this regularly.
This is one of the least advisable forms of backup out there,
because the backup partition becomes as useless as the main
partition if your hard drive ever crashes.

Internal Backup, Multiple Disks

You can also set up another hard drive for backup within your
computer.  This hard drive is a separate entity from your active
hard drive, so it presents greater protection and data security
in case your active hard drive is corrupted.  In this case, you
can use the methods listed above, or you can use a technology
known as RAID 1 to create a mirror image of one hard drive on
the other hard drive.  The advantage of RAID 1 is that your data
is completely safe if you suffer a hard drive crash, but this
will not protect you from a virus or spyware infection, as the
infection will be written to the backup drive right along with
the good data.

On Site, External Backup

A more secure form of backup, external backups allow you to
backup your files using external storage media like USB hard
drives, CD-R(W)s, DVD-R(W)s, and high-capacity flash drives.
Flash drives and external hard drives can be conveniently
connected to your computer's USB port when it is time to back up
your files.  For backing up with CDs and DVDs, you will need a
CD or DVD writer, respectively.  For any of these backup
methods, you can still use backup tools that sometimes come with
the backup data storage media.

Another method for on site external backup is using network
servers in the same office building or workspace dedicated to
backing up data for the whole network.  This backup method can
be done automatically if the network administrator has set it up
for individual clients.  The network administrator can also do
this manually, or each user can do his or her own data backup
manually.

Off Site, External Backup

The key to this method is backing up data and storing the
backup data storage device somewhere else.  This type of backup
method is done to protect not only from drive failures but also
from catastrophes like fire, flood and earthquake.

Off site backup allows you to backup your files on a web-based
server located far from your own physical location.  You can
also store backup data in discs and external drives which will
be kept in a data storage vault that is physically located in a
different building, city, state, or even country.  There is no
backup more secure than an external backup, but web servers can
be expensive, so you may want to simply use your on site backup
media and carry them home (or even store them in a safety
deposit box).  This still allows you to have a full backup
without the hassle and cost of using a web server for your
backups.

This article may be republished freely as long as this
copyright notice and box of resource links are included at the
bottom.

Copyright © 2007 MALIBAL, lLc


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