First Tech Tip for 2009- Back Up Your Stuff !!!!

It is definitely  not the "coolest" stuff to play with and if you are lucky, it's all a waste of time, but if you need it, (and eventually everyone does)  you will be so glad you did it that you will want to  buy me a gift card to Dairy Queen. Don't become this picture and remember;  for my loyal (and not so loyal) readers, I am just an email or call away to help. I know this is a long article (sorry) and for those that won't read it- PLEASE CALL ME SO I CAN HELP YOU BEFORE YOU HAVE A PROBLEM, NOT AFTER. Special Thnaks to "Red" for pointing out a few options I originally missed, I've now updated this blog and owe her a DQ treat.

There are a couple of approaches to backing up the important information on your computer, depending on what you want to achieve. Its all about how safe you want to be and how easy you want the recovery process to go. There is a lot to read on the internet if you want to know more (Here's a good example).  I have tried to summarize the basics below; it doesn't really matter if you have a Mac or a PC (I have both), the theory is the same; although some of the tools, as you will see later, may differ slightly.

What to back up
Pictures, documents, and other files such as tax information or checking account ledgers seem obvious. If you use a mail program such as Outlook Express (Windows XP), Windows Mail (Vista), Apple Mail, or Entourage that lets you save mail on your computer, you will want to back that up, along with your contacts. Don't forget your bookmarks or favorites if you use them. in IE, Firefox or Safari.  Many of you may also want to back up your music, it dramatically simplifies recovering compared to taking it off your iPod or reloading all of your CD's.  Finally, if you want the simplest recovery process from a disaster, you might consider backing up your entire hard drive (called a disk image), everything including your programs, settings and operating system (Windows or OS X) is preserved.  In case of a crash you then don't have to rebuild and reload all your programs, just copy the backup image and you are ready to go, good as new; even if you need a new hard drive.
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Where to back it up.
The safest approach involves keeping your backup in a different place than your computer in case of a fire, flood or earthquake. I think this is important for things that you do not want to lose under any circumstance, such as cherished pictures or critical files, but it might be overkill for other things- you have to decide. If you keep your pictures online for viewing you might think you are OK (and you might be), however be sure and check to see what is stored, and if you can recover them via download. For example Google allows you to upload your full-size photos (but you have to choose that when you upload), and download them later, but the "free account" only allows 1GB, you have to pay for more storage. Shutterfly allows unlimited storage, but you can't download them, only purchase prints, and Flickr's free account is very limited, its paid account ($25/yr) allows unlimited storage but they shrink all your originals, so what you download is not exactly what you had. You can also back up pictures (and files) "online" with a service such as Mozy (its what I do).

Another popular choice is an external hard drive, very easy to use, but a little less safe for those cherished pictures. Next are CD/DVD- excellent for backing up Music or files that don't change (you can also use this for pictures), probably in combination with a flash drive, which is good for smaller backups or ones you use all the time, like documents you work on often. Finally, backing things up elsewhere on your main hard drive is another possibility, but provides the least "safety"; but it's still better than nothing.

Of course you can "roll your own" and backup some things on a CD/DVD and mail them to a friend, keep an external drive with your backup in your safety deposit box, use a flash drive for files and even use free space on a friend's computer, but for many people, these might sound good, but won't be followed through on, and the key to having a good backup strategy is that it is one that you will use, or for me, works by itself.  Many people decide that backing up on a flash or external hard drive only and not worrying about natural disasters is good enough; and most of the time they are right, although for me the exception is pictures. You have to decide for yourself how much and what to "insure".

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I know some of you are saying "I can't afford it !"  When you have a crash, you will not be sorry you spent the small amount of money involved. You can backup 2GB on Mozy for free, or have unlimited backup on Mozy for $60/year; Using CD/DVDs cost less than $10/year, or buy an external hard drive for $80-$100. Just email me and I'll help you find a low cost solution. You can combine ideas for the best cost/benefit that fits your need. For example, keep you large files (pictures and music) on CD/DVDs and keep small important files and mail backup on Mozy's free service or a flash drive. If you want to keep an "image" of you hard drive for full backup and ease of recovery, you will need an external hard drive or a second drive in your computer; still less than $100.

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OK- I'm committed, what next

Once you have decided what you want to backup, and where, just get started. Its not as hard as you think, and you will be glad you did when your computer crashes. I have set up a few over the past year;  here's my experience and what I have used. There are lots of free or low priced (less than $50) tools besides these, just do an internet search on "computer backup".

If all you want or need to backup are a few files or pictures (less than 2GB) use the free Mozy,  or buy a flash drive at any store. 4GB Flash drives can be had for less than $20 with 32GB ones at less than $60 (that's a lot of backup). If you want to backup all your pictures and music as well, you can do it with CD/DVD's for the least amount of money but you have to remember to do it often. A more convenient solution is to pick up an external drive, for $80-$100, at most stores or online. You can just drag the files from your computer to the drive (be sure and do it regularly) or use one of the many free programs to automate and simplify the task for you. Most of the external drives even have their own program built in to help you. Windows XP  and Vista have their own  backup program that you can configure if you like and  OS X.5 (Leopard) has Time Machine. For earlier versions of Mac OS X, check this Mac Support Article out or use SuperDrive (like I do). But remember, your pictures aren't totally safe if they are right next to your computer, its one reason why I use Mozy. Call me if you need help to find a strategy that fits your budget.

Mostly because it is "set and forget" (not safety) I have 3 of our family computers using Mozy's Free 2GB program. Its easy to download and it runs in the background so important information is safe in case of a crash (or burn). My kids use a flash drive as well, but this helps in case they forgot to back up something. (You know me, plan A and plan B). The limitation is, if you have music or a lot of pictures, 2GB isn't enough space. You either have to backup some of it with CD/DVD or a hard drive, or pay the $60/year for more space, which I do for one computer. iDrive is an online competitor to Mozy and gets good reviews, I just have not personally used it. I have also read some nice things about HP's Upline and may give that a try since it provides space for sharing as well as backups and there is a family plan and for Mac users of mobileme, you can use that service, depending on how much you want to back up.. You do need to be sure and allow the program to do the backups and configure it correctly. To be honest, I think ours need some clean-up, which I am committed to do ASAP.

If you prefer to create a complete backup of your drive to simplify the recovery process, just pick up an external drive and use one of the readily available software programs. I do this so I don't have to find all my old disks and re-install everything. For Macs, if you have OS X.5 (Leopard), just turn on Time Machine and you are good to go.If you do not yet have Leopard, the Mac program of choice seems to be SuperDuper. The free version works fine (although a little slow) and I have been using it for 6 months with my school-provided MacBook. I will probably pay the  ~ $30  for the full version soon, just to simplify things so I backup more often. For Windows users one of the more popular (and affordable) programs seem to be Macrium, which has a free version available here. Of course there are others, but I can vouch for the ease of use for Macrium's free version as I set it up the first week in January on both my Uncle Tony's computer in Utah as well as my Dad's in Scottsdale. I feel better knowing when they have a computer crash, recover is just a few clicks away.

Feel free to combine different strategies to suit your needs. I keep some files backed up on Mozy and have an external drive to keep an image of my computer for quick recovery, if needed. Do what works for you, but DO SOMETHING.

Sorry for all this techno mumbo jumbo, I tried to keep it direct and to the point with some links to get started, but you all know me; ramble ramble, ramble.

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The important thing, is DO SOMETHING,!!!. Don't think it can't happen to you, I worked on 3 computers over the last month that "crashed" and recently my brother had  a hard drive crash and lost tons (lots of Gigs) of music and movies that took him many hours to reconstruct. He now has everything backed up. Don't wait too long. DO IT SOON. I promise to help if you need it.