What should I consider when trying to create a backup?
Creating backups of your files is essential to protect yourself from accidental loss of files or system failure. But what is a backup, and how can you create safety copies of your files? This article sheds some light on the main considerations when making a backup.
SOLUTION
When you plan backups, there are several key items for you to consider to properly retrieving your files from a different location:
- Store the backup on a different disk or media than the source drive. This also avoids the media containing the backup to be heavily used.
- Make backups regularly. Ideally it is scheduled to run automatically at given intervals, weekly or even daily.
- Verify the file integrity of backups frequently to avoid parts of the backup storage become unreadable. Check external hard drives and DVDs or CDs readability whether they can still be used.
- Avoid having the backup in the same place as the original files.
For example, creating a backup from the Acer drive to the Acerdata drive is not recommended as both are on the same physical hard disk.
A Cloud Backup product (like Norton Online Backup) provides coverage for all these points, uploading your files automatically to safe and secure internet servers.
MORE INFORMATION
For large amounts of data, external hard drives are most useful. Over longer time they are more reliable than CDs or DVDs, and can be disconnected from your system and stored in a safe place.
It is also possible to create a backup of the entire system (sometimes also called a system image), or of your personal files such as email, photos and videos. The software required differs for these types, but the backup utility of Windows 7 allows both to be done. For more information about how to use this backup utility, please visit our knowledge base article .
