By Rich Eichacker
Vibrance Technology Corporation
Have you ever done this? You create a cover letter for the 20-page proposal you've worked on all weekend. After finishing the letter, you click File and Save As. Without thinking, you proceed to click on the name of your proposal and hit OK. You are prompted to overwrite the file, and think, "Of course I want to overwrite it," and hit the Yes button. Then, in the split second it takes to save, you realize that you just overwrote the proposal with the cover letter. You feel sick.
Or has this ever happened to you? Your system boots up with a message: "Cannot load COMMAND.COM". You send your computer off to the repair shop only to learn that the data on the hard drive cannot be recovered. How much work was on that hard drive? How many years of financial and client data?
In both of these situations the loss could have been minimized with regular backups.
Many of the computer users I run across don't realize this simple fact: Most of the information on their computer is IRREPLACEABLE. Applications and system files can be reinstalled. But your data, the information you create with your applications, cannot.
There are a number of ways to backup the files on your computer: tape backups, Zip drives, and disk drives (including floppy disks). Tape drives generally have enough capacity to backup your entire hard drive and are best suited for "off-site" storage. A Zip drive holds large amounts of data and is good for archiving data that you need to access frequently. Floppies and your hard drive can be used for quick backups, typically before making changes to your files.
When, and how, should you backup? At a minimum, I recommend a weekly or monthly tape backup, depending on how often you use your computer. Think of it this way: how much would it cost you if you lost a week's worth of work? Periodically, you should also permanently store a tape backup off-site. This will cover you in case a disaster strikes your office.
One of the easiest ways to safeguard your data is to simply make backup copies of your files before using them. For example, before balancing your checkbook or deleting a bunch of names from your contact manager, copy the files or the entire program folder to a backup folder or floppy disk. If something happens or if you change your mind, you can easily retrieve the original data.
October 1999 - Volume 9, Number 4