Backing Up Your Hard Drive

Always create a backup of your hard drive. The backup process places the information on the hard drive onto a tape (a special tape recorder such as Digital Audio Tape or DAT for computer systems), recordable CD/DVD, or other backup media. The idea is to create a copy in case something happens to the original. Although a wealth of third party backup products exists, you can use the Backup application found in the Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools folder to create a backup of your system without spending exorbitant sums of cash. This application provides standardized backup options for all of your essential data and it’s free. You can read more about this utility in the “Performing Backups” section of Chapter 8.

TIP Most people cycle through several backups of their system. Using this technique ensures that even when one backup fails, you have other (albeit older) backups you can use. Even an old backup is better than no backup at all.

Knowing how to use the Backup application is only useful when you can easily choose the information to back up. Some novice users try to back up the entire hard drive. While this technique certainly protects your investment, it’s also difficult to manage the amount of data that most people have on their hard drive today. In addition, making a backup of everything is overkill — you’ll never use most of that data.

There’s a practical reason for keeping backup sizes small. Large backups make it both difficult and time consuming to restore the data later. When you look through a large backup, you need to consider the age of the file and whether it’s really the one you need. In addition, trying to sift through an entire hard drive’s worth of data is time consuming when you only need one file. Creating a list of the items you want to restore is the best idea. Here’s a list of common folders that you want to back up.

\Documents and Settings Always perform a complete backup of this folder because it contains all of your user settings. This folder can also contain your email, browser data, and many of the documents you create. In fact, this folder affects everyone who uses your system, so this is potentially the most important folder on your hard drive.

Application-Specific Data and Settings Some applications you install use a separate folder for data and settings. For example, older versions of Corel Draw store information in the \Corel folder. Many games, such as older ones produced by Microprose, also rely on a separate applica­tion folder. To ensure you can restore these older applications, make a backup of the application folder. The manual that comes with the application normally tells you where the application stores its data, but you can also use Windows Explorer to search for the application folder.

\Program Files Some applications store settings and a few even store data with the application in the \Program Files folder. Generally, these are older applications, but many games and educational applications also store their data in the \Program Files folder. Use the Date feature of the Search Explorer Bar shown in Figure 1.1 as a means to locate recently modified files when you want to determine which applications in this folder to back up. Those folders that have files with recent modifications are good candidates for backup. Also, notice how I’ve set up the Advanced Options to help ensure Windows Explorer reports all of the recently modified files.

Figure 1.1 Use the Date feature to locate the applications that store their settings locally.

Custom Data Folders Many users don’t accept Microsoft’s default folder scheme of placing everything in My Documents — they use custom folders to store data. In addition, anyone working in a group is likely to rely on some common folders that don’t appear in My Documents. Always back up any custom folders you create. Make sure you include custom locations for email files and workgroup templates for applications such as Word.

Your hard drive might appear complex, and it is, but by limiting yourself to these four data folder types, you can greatly decrease the complexity of creating a good system backup. More importantly, by concentrating on just the items you need, you reduce backup time and make it easier to restore the data later. Fewer places to look for data translates into a system that’s easier to maintain.