How to mend our ways

Computer Life column for 11/15/97 by
Richard Gordon

Last week's column generated about a dozen messages from people either offering their condolences on the loss of my hard drive or thanking me for alerting them to the dangers of getting lazy about backing things up.

One reader said that her husband got up from the breakfast table to run a back-up. A colleague at the University wondered "how many people backed up their systems this afternoon? I know I just fed a 4mm tape in!"

Another colleague sent a message in which he admitted that he had had the best of intentions, purchasing enough tape cartridges "to adhere to the Grandfather, Father and Son commandment. (Grandmother, Mother, and Daughter if you prefer.)" However, he had not run any back-ups since April. His system is now backed up, and he vows with the fervent language of the recently repentant, to be more diligent in the future.

I also received a couple of queries about how to do it.

The first step is to get things organized. For example, on the Windows 95 system at my office, I have all the files I've created in one partition of my hard drive.

On my home Macintosh, my son had a folder of documents, I had a folder of documents, and all of his shareware was in one folder. Would that I had routinely backed up those folders!

The second step is to decide what and when you want to back things up.

I choose not to back up my computer's operating system or software; I have the original CDs I can use to restore those. Of course, if I had a tape backup unit, I could grab everything including registration information, preferences, game high scores, and the like, thereby reducing the time it would take to restore my system from a catastrophe.

At home, I rarely create files that are greater than 1 Megabyte. Therefore, now that I am filled with zeal, I have an open box of diskettes next to my computer. I've been keeping two diskette copies of all important files. Yeah, I just copy the files every day.

If what you want to copy requires two or more diskettes, you'll need to use MSBackup (an optional part of recent versions of Windows 95) or third party Macintosh software like Stuffit or DiskFit Direct.

If you want to back up things folder-by-folder or if you regularly work with files that are larger than 1M, you should explore mass storage devices like tape back-up units (640M-4Gigabytes, $80 and up), Zip drives (100M, $115 and up), Jaz drives (1G, $390 and up), Syquest drives (230M, $150 and up; 1.5G, $300 and up), or read-write CD drives (650M, $400 and up).

A lot of tape users make a daily diskette copy of "critical" files, a weekly tape copy of "changed" files, and a monthly tape copy of the whole system.

Tape cartridges and drive cartridges are not compatible vendor to vendor--for instance, a Syquest 1.5G cartridge and a Jaz 1G cartridge are not interchangeable. And the price varies, too: from under $10 for a writeable CD to over $120 for a single 1G Jaz or 1.5G Syquest cartridge.

If you decide to purchase one of these storage devices, be careful that it is compatible with your system, that its connection method will work with devices you already use (printer, CD-ROM, regular hard drive, modem, mouse, scanner, etc.), and that it comes with software to allow you to grab either that one file you need or everything you backed up. If you are using Windows 95, make sure it supports long Windows 95-style file names.

Services to do back-ups for you over a telephone line are beginning to appear. For example, Brian's Data Storage Service in New Castle ([302] 999-9221) offers "telebackup" service for Windows users.

In summary, to paraphrase what dental hygienists tell us about flossing, you don't need to back up all your files--just the ones you want to keep.

I think I'll ask Santa for a Zip drive and a box of cartridges. And Dantz's Retrospect or DiskFit Direct for my Macintosh--if I think my credit card can stand it.

Copyright © 1997, The News Journal Company

Computer Life Index