One of the problems that people have with backing up their data is that they don't know where all of it is. You have things in MyPictures, MyDocuments, MyWhatever, files from other software that writes it's data wherever it wants (accounting, email, word processing, graphics programs, POS software, you name it).
That can be complicated if you need your data in more than one location. In my prior life as a contract programmer, I would be away from home during the week and home only on the weekend. I needed to keep ALL my data in whichever place I was at the time. I have the same thing now because I keep all my data in sych between the computer in the store and my one at home.
This may not mean much to any of you just interested in backup but if you set it up for this, backups become trivial. There are several things that you need to do for this. If you do, then backups are easy.
The rules to follow (or at least my suggestions):
1. Create a directory on your drive that is for nonthing other than data. Mine is called otsi (OT Systems, Inc). Under it I have seperate directories for documents, spreadsheets, email, graphics, programming files (I still do some), accounting and other types. Every thing that I work on that I can save, goes into the otsi directory.
2. NEVER, EVER let the program decide where to place your data. Forget about MyWhatever directories. Any decently written program will allow it's files to be saved wherever you want. Many will also allow you to change the default directory to the one of your chosing. My otsi directory has all my files from quicken, MYOB, Outlook, Word, Excell, Photoshop and every other program I use. If your POS or other custom software won't allow you to decide where the data goes, then that is poor program design and you should complain to your vendor. Even programs that intially make their own decisions can be changed. Email programs are notorius for hiding your data. I use Outlook. There is no option in Outlook for where your data file goes. Microsoft puts it where it wants it. I discovered a trick that works for Outlook and Outlook Express. If the program can't find the file, it asks you where it is. I moved it where I wanted it, and the next time I opened Outlook it asked me where it was. I told it and now we are happy together.
3. Your data is now ready for your to do with as you please, not as your software pleases. You can copy it to any medium such as CD, zip, USP Hard Drive, etc. My otsi directory is currently about 350 MB. For backup, I write a CD. When I go to the store, I copy it to a 20G USB hard drive that I can plug in on either computer. Wherever I am, I can get my email or work on any file that I have. Another advantage of keeping the data in both places and on my USB drive is that it is allways backed up. I burn a CD about once a week but I don't have to worry in the meantime.
There are programs such as laplink, that will only copy the file that need to be copied from one drive to another. When I come home from the store, I may have modified only a few files. Laplink will copy only the changed files, not the entire 350 Meg.
Last week at the store (Actually an Antique Mall), one of the other vendors and I were talking about something that I had done a spreadsheet on 10 years ago. While we were talking, I opened up the file in my \otsi\xls directory where I hadn't looked at it in probably 5 years and several computers ago and won a convert to my data backup scheme.
BTW, another compelling argument for this style of data managment is moving to a new computer. Copy one directory and all your old data is now on the new. Painless.
One of the questions here is how many backups to keep. You never know how long you need things. I am networked at home and have a PC that is used basically as a file and print server. Hard drives are cheap. In addition to the CDs I burn, the networked PC has a copy of all my backups going back to 1996. I've pruned many of the incremental backups but I have about one for every month going back that far. Occasionally, I've needed to go back several years to look at things (my 1997 tax return for one). By keeping you backups like this you can prune unneeded files from your current data directory but still know that it is available. I go though my otsi directory about once a year and delete the deadwood knowing that it is still available if needed.
[ 08-20-2003, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: Larry Peterson ]