Someday soon you will lose all your computer files.
Your computer is a machine and its parts will wear out. A new software virus can delete everything on your hard drive. Burglars can steal your computer, fire can burn it, floods can ruin it, and tornadoes can rip it apart. Years of work can disappear in an instant. Nothing that you store on your computer or in your workplace is safe. There is only one thing that you can do to protect your writing: you must make backups.
A backup file is nothing more than a copy. Sounds simple enough, but there are several important factors to consider.
What should you back up?
Back up only those files that are either impossible or very difficult to replace. This includes the original writing
that you create, any notes or reference material related to that writing, your email address book, and your Internet
favorites or bookmarks. However much of a nuisance it is to do so, all your software applications can be reinstalled or
replaced. If you lose your personal settings for a particular software program, it will require only a few minutes to
reconfigure them but if you lose the truly important files, it may take weeks or even months to get back to where you
were before the disaster.
What storage medium should you use?
You have several options. For most people, a single 3.5 inch floppy disk will probably have enough storage capacity
to hold everything you’ve written. If you need more space, you can use programs like WinZIP or PKZIP to compress your
text files before putting them on the disk.
If you have more than what floppies can conveniently handle, you can purchase a special ZIP device, like Iomega, that compresses and stores entire drives onto a tape cassette. Or make a CD. Most newer computers come with CD burners, primarily so people can make their own music CDs, but you can also use your CD burner to make disk backups of your personal files. For small businesses and others that need very large amounts of space, there are professional storage sites on the Internet that charge a fee to keep copies of your files on their computers.
The procedure for backing up your email addresses will vary greatly depending on which email program you use. Check the online Help of your specific application for details. For example, in Outlook Express, you can simply open your address book and copy its contents (Ctrl-C). In Outlook, you have to use the Export function (File/Import and Export). This is a bit more complicated and may even require you to install extra software from your Windows CD. In either case, once you’ve created the email file, you can store it like any other file.
Backing up your favorites list from Internet Explorer also uses an Export function (File/Import and Export), but it’s much simpler than backing up from Outlook. IE Export creates a file called "bookmark.htm" that contains all the site names and URLs in your Favorites list. Create the file and put it with the others.
Where should you keep the backups?
This is actually more important than which storage medium you use. Bad things that happen to your computer could
potentially happen to the backup files if they are in the same room or even in the same building. You can make more than
one copy of your backup, but at least one of the copies should be located several miles from your workplace. Keep one at
home and one at your workplace. Find a backup buddy in another part of town and store each other’s work. Use a safe
deposit box.
You can even store your work on the Internet. If you set up an account with one of the free Web site hosts like GeoCities, you can simply upload your backups to that site. So long as you don’t make links from the default index or home page to your backups, no one should be able to see them without your password. If you prefer still more security, use WinZIP to create a password-protected compressed file and store that on the Internet with a different password. Note: The best passwords are a mix of letters and numbers, like PHS75TO79. These may seem too complicated to remember but all you need to do is find a set that means something to you. For example, the password PHS75TO79 could be easily remembered by someone went to Podunk High School from 1975 to 1979.
How often should you make backups?
That depends on how much material you produce. If you create 50 pages each morning, you probably should make a
backup at the end of every work session. If you only produce about three pages of text a week, a daily backup is
overkill.
Make it easy on yourself but be sure to do it. You’ll be glad you did once you lose your files.