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Backups in Windows 98 and XP

In the second part of this article series I wanted to tell you about the backup software in Windows.  I was just about to write a long piece about how to use the backup software in Windows XP when I remembered I’d already written one.  You can find it HERE.

Backups in Windows Vista

With Windows Vista backups are easy.  In the Start Menu search box type backup and select Backup when it appears in the search results.  The following window should appear, if not try searching for backup again.

This process, unlike Windows 98 and XP is entirely wizard-based and very friendly.  It will ask you the following…

  1. Where you want to store your backup.  You’ll have the options of….
    1. Another hard disk or partition on your PC
    2. Blank CDs or DVDs
    3. A network drive or another computer on your network
  2. What disks / partitions you want included in the backup, select the drive on which your files are located.
  3. What folders you want included, the options are…
    • Pictures
    • Music
    • Videos
    • Email
    • Documents
    • TV Shows
    • Compressed Files
    • Additional Files associated with Windows
  4. Finally it will ask you for a schedule you want Windows to automatically back up your files on.

Backup 101 : You should never back up your files to the same hard drive or partition on which they are stored.

The simple reason for this is that if a hard drive fails, or a partition becomes corrupt and you lose your files, you also lose your backups.

Backing up online

There are also options to backup your data online.  You can read a full review from PC Pro Magazine HERE.  My choices from the selection depend on how much data you have to back up in total.  If it’s less than 2Gb (roughly half a DVD full) then try iDrive, which is free up to that amount.  If you have more than 2Gb of data then Carbonite is a good solution, especially if you have loads of photographs.  It costs (as of the time of publishing) $49.95 a year for unlimited backups.  Do remember though that, depending on the speed of your internet access, it can take an awful long time to backup and restore files to the internet, sometimes several weeks.

The benefits of off-site backup

Backing up your filese to a secure internet service and/or CDs/DVDs that you can store at the house of a friend or family member can offer great benefits.  Top of the list come burglary and house fires.  Flat screen TVs and PCs are easy to replace, photographs and files can prove impossible.  I’d always suggest everyone keep at least semi-regular backups of your files off-site.

Other options

There are a few other options I’ll discuss soon including Skydrive, Foldershare and Live Mesh.  All of these are free services from Microsoft that will, eventually, all be subsumed by Live Mesh.  All offer 5Gb of free storage but have slightly different uses.  Also there are plenty of other backup programs available, many for free, and some that you might alredy own.  While the backup software in Vista is excellent, if you’re still using XP you might want to explore some other options.

Next… Part 3, Backing up your Windows installation