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There are many ways to do an effective data backup. The key point is that you need to remember to DO IT, and do it regularly. One very popular method is to do a complete disk backup say once a week or even once a month. The frequency of this depends on how much data you have and how frequently it changes. There are various software packages readily available that will "clone" your entire hard disk, such that if it died suddenly, you could restore from your backup onto a new hard drive. This would be a duplicate copy of your entire hard drive, including the operating system, the programs, and your valuable data.

In between complete data backups, you will want to also do a "partial" data backup, also known as an incremental backup. An incremental backup only backs up data that has changed since your last incremental backup. You can also indicate to just backup certain folders or directories so that you always have the most current backup of your critical data files. The theory here is that you can always re-install software programs like a spreadsheet or a word processor, but you absolutely beyond a shadow of a doubt want to make sure that you have a backup of your DATA available that is as current as possible. Most experts agree that doing an incremental backup should be considered a DAILY task.

What to backup to? You have many options. For a complete system backup, you should consider backing up to another hard disk drive, like an external drive. There are many external drives readily available at stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc, which sell external disk drives that plug into your USB port in capacities ranging from 40 MB to a whopping 500 MB or more. Incremental backups can be done to a CD or DVD, where you may even want to opt for the slower write speeds of CDRW or DVD-RW so that previous CDRW/DVDRW disks can be re-written at a later date.

There are also companies that offer an ONLINE data backup service. This may be very cost effective if you spend a lot of time on the road or away from your office, since you can then retrieve a needed backup just about anywhere you can get online, like from a hotel room or client site. However, this option should only be used to backup your critical files, like customer information, product information, presentations, etc, since even with high-speed Internet access, a backup restore operation will take a significant amount of time for a large volume of data.

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Data Backup Articles

Computer Backup Software by Eddie Tobey Backup is very important while storing files on a computer or any other electronic device such as a digital camera. Computers are often notorious for crashing, which causes all the data on the hard disk to be erased. Files can also be deleted accidentally. Retrieving lost data from a hard disk is an almost impossible task. The best way to protect data is to store it in some other location/locations like CDs, tapes, DVDs, floppy disks, key drives, another hard disk or another computer. Data backup is a very easy task today, with the availability of several software programs. The simplest way to create a backup is to .... Read more...

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