No matter who you are if you use a computer there is a good chance (around 99 and 3/4%) that you have data. For the most part we like to keep that data. The time I spent working for Dell Technical support I replaced lots of parts for may people from my experience I have noticed The most common part of your computer to fail is: anything that isn't inside it(mouse, keyboard that sort of stuff) But usually it's minor and easily replaced. The second most common part of your computer is your monitor(yes it's not in your computer but I keep that separate because it costs much more then that other stuff.) It happens less often now that most people are using LCD monitors(my guess is most of the CRT monitors are broken or are horribly distorted by now). Close behind is your hard drive maybe even more so if you use a laptop.
Your hard drive is a little silver box and it holds all your pictures, all your program, and all your documents on it. Now I want you to close your eyes(second thought keep them open so you can read) and picture your computer(it should be easy sense your probably looking at it) and imagine that it explodes into little burning chunks. It's unlikely that this will happen but this would be a scenario that would make your data impossible to recover. Now think of all the data on the computer that you will lose never to get back again. For a few people this may not be much and may not mean much for others it may be a lot and may be a very big deal.
There is many ways to backup your data and all of them are good ways to protect your data from nasty bad things happening to them. The best way to determine what backup method is best for you is to find out how much data you want to backup and how often that data changes. I'll list the methods of backing up data followed by an explanation of each method. The listed by amount of data needed to be backed up:
Under 1GB: CD
8GB: DVD
20GB or less: Flash drive(sometimes called thumb drive)
25-50GB: Blu-Ray Disks
250GB to 1TB(1000GB): Internal/External Hard drive.
With the reduced cost of flash drives compounded with the increased capacity CD's and DVD's aren't the best way to go they are better for sharing data with others. If you have a smaller amount of data to back up just stick with a flash drive for $20 you can get a good quality 8 GB drive and if you need a little more around $50 you can get 16-20GB. Blu-ray isn't gonna be the best idea unless you already have a Blu-ray burner. If you need to backup more than what a flash drive can handle your your wanting to backup your whole computer then an external (or internal) hard drive is the best way to do it. Right now 1TB external hard drive is going for about $100 and for peace of mind knowing your data is save it's not a bad deal. One of these drives should be more than enough to back up everything on your computer unless you have more data than the average user.
How should you back up data? There are a few programs that can help you backup data, some hard drives will even come with these types of programs. I was going to recommend some programs but I really can't because I haven't used many. The only one that I have used and like and would recommend is Symantec Backup Exec but that's more for Businesses and can cost over $1000. For my personal backups I use an external hard drive and a flash drive for other things. To manually backup your data all you need to do is open the location of your data and drag it to the hard drive. Once you see the data on the hard drive it's backed up and to restore it just do it the other way.
How do I make sure I backup everything I need? A great tip is to save everything you need in your "My Documents" folder (Just "Documents" in Windows 7). If you do that then all you need to do is open your documents folder and copy everything in there to your external drive. In XP and Vista it will contain your pictures and music as well, if you use 7 then just click on the start button (aka the Pearl) and in the text bar near the bottom type in "Libraries" and press enter. This will bring up 4 folders: "Documents" "Music" "Pictures" and "Movies" all of these folders should contain everything you need to back up. Don't get into a bad habit of saving things to your desktop, it's a bad idea and just makes it look messy. (it's also a pet peeve of mine) If you do just make sure to grab those files too, you can just drag and drop from the desktop to your backup location. Backing up programs that are installed on your computer isn't needed and even if you back it up it might not work if you copy it back, it's better to just reinstall programs if you lose them. If it's a program you downloaded off the internet and you want to keep it handy so you don't have to download it again just save the install file to your backup that way you have a way to reinstall it if needed.
Does email need to be backup up? If you use an internet email like Gmail, Live Mail, Yahoo, or anything that you can get to from a web browser then no you don't need to back it up unless you save it to your computer in some way. If you do save your emails just make sure to save them to your documents folder and your all set. Probably your work email will use an Exchange or POP email server this does require some more steps to make sure that it's backed up but I don't want to go so deep into that right now or this post will never end.
What about fires, thieves, or things that can physically damage data? If you keep data that would in some way be detrimental to you or others in any way financially or personally then taking extra steps to insure it's protection may be a good idea. There is a few companies out there that will help you backup your data over the internet like Mozy for a monthly fee. I would only recommend that you keep the data you backup over the internet to more critical data because backing up and recovering data over the internet can take much more time depending on your internet connection. But this will be able to access your data anywhere you can access the internet. Backing up data over the internet does also create new risks such as hackers trying to steal your data. It's a small risk and I'm sure the backup companies do everything to make sure that does stay at a minimum. Just make sure to keep a strong password. (I'll do passwords for another computer tip sometime.)
What do I do if something bad happens and I didn't backup my data? First let me say this: BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!!! But really if your hard drive crashes or your computer breaks, your you accentually delete your important files followed by emptying the recycle bin not all is lost there is methods of recovering data but this can become very expensive depending on how bad it is and isn't something that I would want anyone to experience. (I'll cover data recovery on another tip)
I want to end this post with an experience I had working for Dell technical support. I had a collage student call in who had purchased a laptop from dell. She was calling because there was a problem with her computer not being able to start. She was very concerned because finals was in a few weeks and she had been working on a big project or something. (can't remember exactly what it was but it was vital to her graduation) She continually reminded me of this every few minutes as I walked her though some steps to run the diagnostics on the computer. Once the diagnostics came back with the results confirming what I thought was the problem. I had to break the bad news to her that the drive had gone bad to the point where it will need to be replaced. She realized the severity of the problem while trying to hold back the tears she asked about her data. While Dell will replace the bad hard drive with a new one they don't cover any data so she will have to find a method of recovering the data from some other place. While trying to calm her down from her sobbing I tried to reassure her that it's still possible to recover the data and recommended a few places that might be able to help her and encouraged her to make sure she keeps a backup of her data from now on. I don't know what happened after that other then that she got a new hard drive but I could speculate that she would probably wind up spending around $400 or more just to try recovering the data and even then it's not 100%. All of her anguish could have been prevented by a simple little flash drive that you keep on a key chain.
As always if you need more help with backup or recovery talk with me I can at least point you in the right direction, if not help you more.
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