Should I Make a Backup of My Computer?
Few people that purchase a computer go through the trouble of making a backup on their computer of their applications or data. Backups take more time than people are willing spend on them. Their is one question you should ask yourself? Do I have any valuable letters, spreadsheets, pictures or financial or other data that I will lose if my computer has hardware, operating system, virus or spyware problems which cannot be recovered. If your answer is yes you should make some type of backup on your new computer.
One backup strategy is to make a image of your hard drive when your computer is operating correctly. This way when trouble happens you can restore your image to your hard disk in about 45 minutes. This will give you a fresh start, with no spyware, virus, conflicts or problems. This will restore your computer to the state it was when you created the image. You will lose any information that you created or programs that you installed after the image was created. The advantage is you will have an exact image of your hard drive and can restore your computer in half the time it would take to install Windows XP and all the data a software programs that you would have to other wise have to reinstall. If you are like most people you often misplace your CD's for Windows or software programs. You not need these CD's to restore your image. Symantec Norton Ghost 9 and Acronis True Image 8 are a couple of image programs that we have great success using.
Here are some ideas of where you can save your image. The least expensive way is to make a second partition on your primary hard drive. You should request this be done when you purchase your new computer or you can use Windows XP or a third party program such as Symantec's Partition Magic. You can also use this partition to keep all your documents, spreadsheets, photos or any data without creating an image. This will make it to restore this information should you need to reinstall Windows XP and your software programs. The disadvantage to this is if your hard drive fails you will lose your image or information. You could also make images to your DVD R-W if you have one installed on your new computer. You may have to span your image across more than on DVD-RW disc. Most image programs support this feature. Another option would be to install a second hard drive to create images on. You could do this with an internal or external hard drive. Using internal hard drives you could mount your primary and secondary drives in removable drive housings in open bays. In the event that your primary drive fails you could switch drives from bay 1 to bay 2 and start your computer from your ready to go image on drive 2. You also can have a RAID LEVEL 1 configuration on your new computer. This creates identical contents on both hard drives to protect against data loss due to drive failure. In the event your primary drive does fail the secondary drive would keep your computer running. You would have no down time on your computer. The most expensive option would be a Iomega backup drive. These drives have removable disks that can be inserted or removed from the drive.
With a little effort you can be sure that your computer stays running smoothly with little down time and troubleshooting using the above methods. This will make sure you have a reliable backup of your valuable information.
Written by JR Computers Staff
From: http://www.jronsite.com/article_2.htm
One backup strategy is to make a image of your hard drive when your computer is operating correctly. This way when trouble happens you can restore your image to your hard disk in about 45 minutes. This will give you a fresh start, with no spyware, virus, conflicts or problems. This will restore your computer to the state it was when you created the image. You will lose any information that you created or programs that you installed after the image was created. The advantage is you will have an exact image of your hard drive and can restore your computer in half the time it would take to install Windows XP and all the data a software programs that you would have to other wise have to reinstall. If you are like most people you often misplace your CD's for Windows or software programs. You not need these CD's to restore your image. Symantec Norton Ghost 9 and Acronis True Image 8 are a couple of image programs that we have great success using.
Here are some ideas of where you can save your image. The least expensive way is to make a second partition on your primary hard drive. You should request this be done when you purchase your new computer or you can use Windows XP or a third party program such as Symantec's Partition Magic. You can also use this partition to keep all your documents, spreadsheets, photos or any data without creating an image. This will make it to restore this information should you need to reinstall Windows XP and your software programs. The disadvantage to this is if your hard drive fails you will lose your image or information. You could also make images to your DVD R-W if you have one installed on your new computer. You may have to span your image across more than on DVD-RW disc. Most image programs support this feature. Another option would be to install a second hard drive to create images on. You could do this with an internal or external hard drive. Using internal hard drives you could mount your primary and secondary drives in removable drive housings in open bays. In the event that your primary drive fails you could switch drives from bay 1 to bay 2 and start your computer from your ready to go image on drive 2. You also can have a RAID LEVEL 1 configuration on your new computer. This creates identical contents on both hard drives to protect against data loss due to drive failure. In the event your primary drive does fail the secondary drive would keep your computer running. You would have no down time on your computer. The most expensive option would be a Iomega backup drive. These drives have removable disks that can be inserted or removed from the drive.
With a little effort you can be sure that your computer stays running smoothly with little down time and troubleshooting using the above methods. This will make sure you have a reliable backup of your valuable information.
Written by JR Computers Staff
From: http://www.jronsite.com/article_2.htm