What to consider before you execute a backup

I hope by now those of you who are Good Boot backup trainees have mastered the art of relocating all your important "Stuff" into appropriate sub folders you’ve created in XP My Documents or Vista’s Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos as it’s time to move on to tutorial 4, a discussion of what you should consider before actually executing a backup activity.

I suggest novices need only consider three options when making a determination on how to backup there irreplaceable Stuff.

Option one (Exact Copy) is a backup that creates an exact copy of XP’s My Documents data or Vista’s Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos and perhaps Favorites, Contacts and Games data to an external hard drive.

After you make your first Exact Copy backup and prior to making subsequent Exact Copy backups your backup program will scan the data on your external hard drive and compare it to data you’re backing up from your computer. The data it finds on your external hard drive that’s no longer included in the data you’ll be backing up from your computer will be deleted. The result is the data on your external hard drive will match exactly the data on your computer.

Option two is a backup that simply adds all new data to an external backup device. I call it archiving.

After you make your first Archive backup when you initiate subsequent Archive backups your backup program will simple copy all the new data from you computer to your external hard drive without deleting any data from the external hard drive.

Obviously both options have merit.

Option one provides an opportunity, should it be necessary, to restore your computer’s XP My Documents or Vista Documents, Pictures, Music and Video data to exactly the state it was when you made your most current backup.

Option two provides a safety net. When properly used it will insure the data you deleted from your computer and your eternal hard drive during an Exact backup will be available should you need it.

In my opinion Option three a backup regimen that includes both options should be your choice.
With the advent of large capacity, inexpensive external hard drives this option is a must.

Next week I’ll explain how to do both using Second Copy an inexpensive software program that’s so user friendly I guarantee you’ll never again be the victim of lost data.

Download a free trial at www.secondcopy.com.

Here’s wishing you a Good Boot.