BackUp Questions

Hi all,
I'm a complete newbie here and I admit that I don't know much, so when I was reading that backing up is a good idea I was extremely confused.

I was wondering what actually is backing up? Does it create a simple file that contains all your pictures, music, progams ect. or do you need to manually have to copy them onto a disk?

I'm sorry if this is a repeat, but after a couple of hours searching as a non-member and reading other threads on backing up I was just more confused. If someone could help me with this in a simple way without too much 'tech talk'(I have short term memory problems and I don't remember terms that are not used every day) I'd really appreciate it. Again sorry if this has been asked before.

Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully answer my question.

 

Hi redtearsblackwings. :wave

Yes, backups are important and there are several types and different methods.
I'm currently trying to setup a better backup strategy for myself.
Some backups are simply copies of important files, as you mentioned.
Those copies can be made in a different location on the same hard drive,
or on another partition on the the same physical hard drive,
or on an additional hard drive in your computer, or on an external hard drive, or on CD's or DVD's.

A partition is a separate drive with its own drive letter, like D: or F:, that exists on the same Physical drive.

Another type of backup uses an Image which is an exact copy of an entire drive or partition
which can be used to restore a drive or partition to a previous good working state.

Another type of backup is a copy of the operating system Registry, that can be restored when certain types of problems occur.

A good (free) program for that is ERUNT - The Emergency Recovery Utility NT

A popular free program for making image backups is EASEUS Todo Backup Home Edition

Some good programs for backing up specific files and folders are:
Cobian Backup
Karen's Replicator

I'll see if I can find a couple of good articles about what backups are and different strategies of how to do it.

Cheers. :major

 

I think you might like Allway Sync. Typically, with backup software, you will need to select the file and/or folders that you want to backup the first time you use it and select the destination drive or partition but you can save that backup as a "job" that can be later used again. In other words, you can open that job later and run it again without having to go through the file/folder selection process again. If you want to create multiple "jobs", most of the backup programs will let you do that too. So, for example, if you want a saved backup procedure just for music files, you could run that backup separately.

 

Here is a step-by-step Tutorial about how to Backup and Restore
using Cobian Backup:

How to backup and restore your data using Cobian Backup

This is the online Manual fot EASEUS ToDo Backup:

Welcome to EASEUS Todo Backup Manual

 

Many aspects to backup as has been said, but the first things to concentrate on are these files which are irreplaceable, particularly your photos and any important personal documents you may have. Think about the way they are organised on your comp because good organisation makes backing up far simpler. Also best to use a file backup program that has a built-in scheduler - then you can set it to do an automatic unattended backup every day at a time that suits. SyncToy is one such, but many others can do this too.

It's important to keep backups where you can still access them even if your comp dies or disappears, so an external drive of some sort is pretty well essential, though personally I wouldn't keep stuff long term on a flash drive - I've had too many fail on me! It's also good to have backups in more than one place.

Later on, when you are getting organised with your backups, you should think about system imaging for disaster recovery, but get your file backups sorted first. An OS can always be reinstaaled.

 

Thank you everyone for the replys, it's starting to make a little more sense.
I'm running Windows 7 Home, but I'm not sure what vision it is or how to find that information lol.
I have my flies both on my computer but also on my 80gig iPod, I will be buying a different external hard drive(something bigger) when I've got the spare money. However I've never had any problems with storing things on my iPod.

I do still have one question that I'm a little confused with and I'm sorry if someone has already answered it here because I just didn't understand. When creating a image backup file how big is it? If they back up copies the files does that mean it's going to be a massive file?

 

Yeah, you guessed right.
If you image a partition or an entire drive, then the image file will be about as big as
the total spaced USED on that partition or drive.

There may be some compression done by default, depending on the backup program's capabilities and initial settings.

I agree with Earthling's first point, that you should first concentrate on making copies of your most important stuff.

 

Ah okay cool, thank you for all your help and advice on programs which I'm now reading about.

 

Yes, backup copies either certain types of files (personal media and documents) or it can also copy your entire full computer drive image. The full image backup will copy/preserve all software; and will have your registration keys and certificates.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Back-up-your-files

 

http://majorgeeks.com/Macrium_Reflect_FREE_Edition_d6034.html

 

Hi!
Here is a screen shot of back up images created by Macrium Reflect. They are stored on a seagate External 120GB USB.
I can recover from a complete HD failure. It will be exactly like is was the day I created the image. I will be back up and running in a hour or less!!
PS I'm running xp3. Windows7 has it's own back up feature, but I would expect it to look similar????????

 

Thank you for the attachment, but I have to admit that I really don't know what it means lol.

I'm looking to take an image of my computer after I re-load the OS because it's gone really glitchy on me. However I've got no idea how to even go about it lol.

I did recently by a Seagate Expansion External Drive that's 1TB, so now I've got plenty of space to play with

 

Oh I get it now! I'm not using that tool, I'd being doing the copeing to my external drive because I didn't like the sync apps. I'm clearing space on my computer and the sync apps deleted the files on my external drive when I removed them from my computer. Lucky they where on my iPod still.

Thank you for the links and I'm very sorry if I'm causing irritation.

 

You're completely correct about that I don't copy the OS files, I'm not sure where they are and I wouldn't be confordent to go near them anyway.

The sum up was brilliant thank you! I'll get the Easeus ToDo and read all the links that have been put up.

 

Hi! I didn't realize that you were running Windows 7 until later in your thread. That makes the ball game a little different. You could still use Macrium to create a back up image of your OS, but you should listen to David and do exactly what he tells you to do. My screen shot showed my back ups and probably confused you. Just listen to David. You need to have a back up image of your entire OS. It will take some time the first time to learn how, but then it is easy. Once you have your OS backed up, you can stop worrying about losing any data and can restore your PC exactly like the day you created your back up. Just listen to David;he will show you how to do that. Sorry for confusing you.

 

Don't stress too much about confusing me, it almost my perminate state I'm use to it.
Thanks for the offer of help, the thought was in the right place which is what counts

 

I do hope, once you've got your drive imaging sorted, that you will return to take a second look at the sync programs. The problem with drive imaging is that you only take an image at intervals - not every day. So if you have a problem and need to restore an image, then your entire computer, including any folders containing personal files, will be reverted to its state at the time the image was created. This can cause the loss of recent data.

Sync programs can be setup to backup up your chosen folders automatically to a schedule, like twice daily, so there is little or no risk of losing anything important through having had to restore an image. You can also control what action it takes when deleting from the original.

But do get your imaging sorted first!

 

Your in good hands. These guys will help you!! I have two Seagate external drives. I keep a back up image of my OS on both of them. I don't like starting over from scratch. I back up the back up:-D:-

 

Hi! I have a Seagate GoFlex Desk 1TB. It has a backup and encryption software program pre-loaded on the drive. I don't use that feature because I don't have that many important files. I think you can program it to back up your files as often as you wish. I'm sure you can use incremental back ups or what ever your fancy is. I'm sure David can explain how it works better than I; sense I have never used that feature. I just create a back up image of my OS once a month or when I make major changes. It has saved me a lot of head aches. Here's a link. I hope I'm not confusing you. Just another way to back up your important data! Let David help you for now. This will make more sense to you latter.
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/freeagent/desktop-hard-drive/

 

Yes I did see that and to be honest I didn't like it, I didn't find it user friendly as well as the fact that it's a trail. I can't afford to be paying for stuff. I think I'll stick to my plan.
Thanks for the reply though