1. Basic Guide to Computer Backups
Eric Moore
Computer Users Group of Greeley
September 13, 2008

2. Why Create a Backup? Any hard drive will eventually fail
Data recovery from a failed hard drive is expensive!
Restoring a deleted or corrupt file is not always possible
Your data may be time-consuming to recreate (if even possible)
You depend on your computer for your livelihood
You need to keep multiple revisions of a file

3. Backup Media Internal Hard Drive 500 GB of storage About $0.20 per GB
Fast backups and restores
Not portable!
External Hard Drive
Slower than internal hard drive
Portable
CD-R
700 MB of storage
About $0.23 per GB
Inconvenient for multi-GB backups

4. Backup Media (cont.) DVD-R 4.7 GB of storage About $0.05 per GB
Portable
More convenient than CD-R
DVD+R Double Layer
8.5 GB of storage
About $0.14 per GB
More convenient than DVD-R
USB Flash Drive
4 to 32 GB of storage
About $2.50 to $3.00 per GB
Greatest Portability
Pricey

5. Backup Methods File and Folder Backup Drive Image
Select group of files and folders
Less time to perform
Less storage space
For small, daily backups of your data
Drive Image
Entire partition or hard drive
More time to perform
More storage space
For complete restoration of your computer

6. Types of Backups Full Backup Incremental Backup Differential Backup
Copy Backup

7. Full Backup Captures every selected file and folder
Marks every item it touches as being backed up
Requires the most space and time

8. Incremental Backup
Captures files and folders created or modified since last full or incremental backup
Marks every item it touches as being backed up
Requires less space and time to complete
Requires more time (and care) to restore

9. Differential Backup
Captures files and folders created or modified since last full backup
Does not mark anything as being backed up
Requires more space and time than an incremental backup
Requires less time to restore

10. My Recommendations Method and Media
Disk image for greatest safety in case of disaster
External hard drive and/or flash media
Frequency
Full backup at least once a month
Incremental or differential once a day
Redundancy
Create copies to different media
Store at least one encrypted copy off site or online
Test for Reliability
Verify scheduled backups are actually run
Try restoring some files and folders