Backup 101: Saving our digital lives

Photo by Photowitch  (Dreamstime.com)

One of life’s most unpleasant facts is that things tend to fail... Automobiles, health, marriages, 80's hair-band reunion tours - there are few things that can claim permanent exemption from the eventual glitch that makes everything much more complicated. Perhaps one of our most-feared failures, however, is the one that consigns our most precious memories, our most valuable documents, and our vast music library and video archive to that digital wasteland of hard drive death.

Though hard drive failures are not necessarily common, they do happen. Generally, the very thought of such a thing inspires in us that sinking feeling normally associated with the loss of a loved one or an urgent phone call from our investments manager. One would imagine that we, being logical and intelligent people, would be prepared for this potential unpleasantry by performing regular backups of our most cherished and important information. Yeah... Right. For some reason, we tend to regard the task with a certain degree of distaste, like finally getting down and pouring bleach on whatever is growing behind the toilet or something. With a little encouragement, perhaps we’ll recommit ourselves to performing regular backups before we lose our entire photographic record of last year’s family vacation and that huge PowerPoint presentation, six months in the making.

We ought to begin by being attentive to any new noise that our gadgets begin making. Impending hard drive failures will often manifest themselves in a strange, repeated clicking noise - an indication that the parts responsible for reading and writing information are having trouble doing so. Equally portentous noises - though somewhat less frequent - include subtle grinding or a slightly louder “working hum” than usual. It is a thing to be wondered at that such tiny and inconspicuous noises can inspire wild, frenzied displays of activity among the informed as they attempt to get everything backed up before the hard drive clicks its last click.

So where to begin...? We might start with figuring out what we need to backup. Though the list will certainly differ from person to person, there are a few general categories of things to be considered. Documents, music, photos, and videos are usually stuffed by default into the massive My Documents folder on PCs sporting Windows. There, each type of file might be found tucked neatly in its own labeled subfolder. In a perfect OS world, we wouldn’t have to look much further than here for these types of files... Alas, that it is not always so. Errant files can be located by using the global search feature integrated in most editions of Windows. Typing “mp3” into the Vista search box, for example, will initiate a search on our computer for anything containing that term. One may also narrow things down to a specific file type by using a “wildcard term” - searching for “*.*mp3” will instead locate only the playable MP3 files located on the computer.

With the recent improvement in many online email clients, millions have now migrated from local clients like Outlook Express or Windows Mail to massive online options like Hotmail or Gmail. Users of these latter options have their contact and message information stored in cyberspace on a network server where it will remain happily unaffected by a local hard drive failure. For those who still rely upon a local mail client, the most accessible backup option is to look under the File menu of the program for an “export” or “backup” option. Files can then easily be copied to a temporary folder for later transfer to the chosen backup media.

Independently installed programs present an especial challenge, in that there is no set pattern for how each handles its data files. Though many do indeed make use of the My Documents folder for saving associated data files, such is not a universal certainty. As with Outlook Express or Windows Mail, the easiest method is to look for an export option. As a last resort for older programs, one may be required to dig through a complicated directory structure in Windows Explorer to locate the appropriate files. In such an instance, help from online software support pages and manuals will undoubtedly lessen the potential headache. One last thing to consider is the Favorites folder. Though many use this only as a convenience, others have created extensive list and directory structures that guide every moment of their surfing experience... Type “favorites” into the search box, and copy the entire folder to your backup media.

To answer the question of how frequently we need to back things up, we might ask ourselves the question, “How much can I afford to lose...?” If the thought of two weeks worth of email, documents, and music disappearing doesn’t frighten you much, then the answer for you is every two weeks. If scarcely a day passes that you don’t make critical additions and alterations to life-important libraries of information, you’re probably better off backing things up at the end of each day. Whatever our personal answer to this question is, we ought to have a backup from some recent point in time that we can revert to in case the unfortunate does occur.

Once we have everything identified, located, exported, and otherwise in place, the last thing that needs to be considered is the type of storage media that will best suit our individual needs. Many options exist, each with its own pros and cons. Perhaps the most basic and inexpensive solution is to burn backup files to a blank CD or DVD. For moderate information loads, this presents a workable solution. Maximum storage on burnable CDs and DVDs are approximately 700 MB and 4.7 GB respectively. Recordable CDs provide sufficient storage space to accommodate a small music and photo library and all of your Word and Power Point files. Burning these files to a DVD would allow you to add a couple of DivX videos to the mix. Either of these options gives us the added ability to easily and inexpensively replicate copies for storage at different locations. For our most important documents, for example, we may want a copy at home, one at the office, and one in the glove compartment of the Camry for safe measure.

A slicker and quicker backup alternative is the USB flash drive. Although these devices once carried large price tags and small capacity, the balance has begun to shift lately in our favor. One can now obtain an 8GB stick for less than $20 at Newegg.com. Options are available providing up to 64GB of storage space, but the cost of these higher-capacity sticks is more than one would spend on an external hard drive. These devices carry the advantage of being small, quick, and easy. They are incomparably portable, and the price tag permits us to have a couple at our disposal if so desired.

For those who have amassed gargantuan media libraries, the only suitable option is to purchase another hard drive. They come in two varieties - internal and external. Internal drives are generally a bit cheaper, but require a little more expertise to install and set up. In general, those who aren’t comfortable cracking open the side of their towers and picking through dusty cables for an available power connector and SATA slot will be better off with an external drive. These are highly user- friendly and portable. A new one can be had for less than $100 dollars, and they can provide the quickest method for creating backup copies of large file loads.

So what if we’d rather deal with the risk of failure than the hassle of the backup process..? In almost fifteen years worth of computing, I have personally had two drives fail. I have consulted and consoled with probably a dozen others who have suffered the same - one friend burned through two drives on his laptop in just three months. True, our chances of never having to deal with this are decent, but we must weigh the hassle against the risk. As with any such task, once we’ve completed it a time or two and overcome the learning curve, it becomes easier... And once everything is safely backed up, we’ll have one less thing to worry about.