How To Backup Data On Windows Xp (Xperf) On A Laptop Or Ipad (Windows Xp) On Your Computer Or Ipa (Windows Pc) On An Ipa Computer On A Thumbdrive Or Ipod (Windows) On Pc

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1 Backing Up Data on Windows XP The primary reason for this document is to prepare you for the upcoming lifecycle replacement and migrating to a new laptop when you return this coming school year. But I would like to take a minute and stress why it is so important to back up your data. Data loss on a computer happens for several reasons but the big three are: 1. Software failure One of the first things I was taught at TSTC in Waco about computer repair is, Windows is going to die. It s not a question of if, but when. Even though I m a Mac guy OS X is not perfect either. Software can fail for a thousand different reasons and often it is because of 2. Hardware failure Every computer depends on a hard drive to store data. Traditional hard drives use multiple spinning platters racing at over 5400 rpm s with magnetic heads reading info and hovering less than a micrometer above. A bump, a drop or anything else can cause the head to scratch the service of the drive possibly rendering it useless forever. Add mechanical wear and hard drives are a dangerous place for long-term storage. 3. Human error Drag the wrong file to the trash, forget to save, clicking Save As instead of Save; these are just a few ways we can destroy our own data. In most cases when it s gone, it s gone. It is important to back up your data and I m not just talking about your school data. Sure loosing your lesson plans would be horrible but what if you lost your entire music collection, or your tax info or those baby pictures of your first-born. If you are not backing your data you are playing with fire and could easily lose the items you hold dear. With that said, here is how to back up your data.

2 Step 1: Determine the amount of space needed Word documents take up very little space while movie and music collections can eat up an entire drive. Before you determine which type of storage to go with, find out how much you need. 1. Go to My Computer > Windows (C:) > Documents and Settings > your name. 2. Right click Desktop and choose Properties. 3. Next to size make note of how much room is used. It will be measured in KB, MB or GB. 4. Close the window and repeat the process for My Documents 5. Once you have all of the data, add it up. a. 1,000 KB = 1 MB b. 1,000 MB = 1 GB 6. If you have very few files or mostly word documents, it may only be a few hundred MB. If you have a large collection of movies, pictures or music, you may have several GBs of data. Step 2: Determine a storage type Depending on how much data you have you may be limited on how you back up your data. Here are some of the most popular. CD / DVD o Suggested user Small to medium amounts of data (0 KB 4 GB) o Pros CDs and DVDs are cheap; can be easily stored; portable o Cons easily scratched, lost or broken; CDs only hold 750 MB per disc / DVDs 4 GB; many newer computers do not come with disc drives any more, they are being phased out in favor of downloading from the Internet o Available at: Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Office Max, etc. USB flash drive (thumb drive) o Suggested users - Small to heavy amounts of data (0 KB 32 GB)

3 o Pros cheap; easily stored; fast to read and write; portable o Cons easily lost; extremely cheap drives may use inferior chips and could burn out with no way to retrieve data o Available at: Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Office Max, etc. USB hard drive o Suggested users - medium to super heavy amounts of data (8 GB 500 GB) o Pros fast to read and write data; portable; sometimes data can be recovered o Cons easily lost; not cheap depending on the size o Available at: Best Buy, Office Max, etc. Cloud storage (Internet) o Suggested users - Small to super heavy amounts of data (0 KB 500 GB) o Pros can be accessed from anywhere including smart phones; off site backup o Cons must be connected to Internet; slow speeds depending on service and amount of data o Available at: Dropbox.com, Carbonite.com Step 3: Determining a backup process Now that you have your backup media, its time to figure out how to get your items backed up. Manual backups Exactly what it sounds like, you are in charge of doing your own backups. o Pros cheap; requires no additional software or money o Cons your last backup is only as good as your memory Automated backups A piece of software backs up your data automatically. o Pros data is guaranteed to be backed up

4 o Cons must be connected to Internet or device; may cost additional money Step 4: Backup your data CD / DVD Burning 1. Go to My Computer > Windows (C:) > Documents and Settings > your name. 2. Right click Desktop and choose Send To > DVD RW 3. Do the same with the following: a. My Documents b. Favorites 4. A pop up bubble should appear telling you there are items waiting to be burned to disc. If the pop up does not appear, go to My Computer > DVD RW Drive. 5. On the left hand side click Write these files to CD 6. In the new window give the CD a name (the date would be best). Click Next. 7. Insert a blank CD into the drive and click Next. 8. Store the backup somewhere safe. NOTE: If you do not have anything stored in one of the above folders, do not worry about backing it up. WARNING: If your data is larger than the disc you have, you will have to burn the folders one at a time. USB Flash Drive / USB Hard Drive 1. Plug in the USB drive. 2. Go to My Computer > Windows (C:) > Documents and Settings > your name. 3. Copy the following folders onto the USB drive a. Desktop

5 b. My Documents c. Favorites 4. Store the backup somewhere safe. NOTE: If you do not have anything stored in one of the above folders, do not worry about backing it up. WARNING: Do not trust some of the software that comes with USB flash drives. While SanDisk makes a good drive, the U3 software has issues. Use this link to get the removal tool for it: USB Hard Drive Many new hard drives come with backup software. You can either: Use the backup software that comes on the drive. Do manual backups using the steps I listed above for a USB flash drive. Online Backup There are many services online that can be used to backup data; some are free, some are paid services. I can personally vouch for these two. Drop Box Drop Box o Drop Box creates a folder on your computer that is always synced to the Internet at all times. Anything you place in the Drop Box folder is automatically synced as well. o Drop Box is free for a 2 GB folder and then a fee for additional space. o If you have less than 2 GB of data to keep up with this is a great product. o Drop Box can be installed on multiple computers, accessed through the Internet and on a smart phone. o Go to the site to view a video with more info.

6 o HINT: I use Drop Box to sync files between my two laptops and my imac at home. Carbonite o Carbonite backs up your entire computer to secure servers over the Internet. o Carbonite is $55 a year but allows for unlimited data to be stored. Recommendations If I were going to recommend how to back up your data, here is what I would do. Less than 2 GB of data o If you have less than 2 GB of data, use Drop Box. Less than 16 GB of data o If you have less than 16 GB of data, get a USB thumb drive and just make sure to back up your drive daily or weekly. o If might be a good idea to get a second drive to back up data and keep in a safe, separate location. (See Commentary) More than 16 GB of data o Get a USB hard drive, use the built in back up software. o Get an account with Carbonite. (See Commentary) Commentary On January 22, 2009, my wife and I awoke to bright lights and what sounded like bombs going off in front of our house. The house across the street was on fire with two vehicles burning in the driveway. Thankfully no one was injured. The point of the story is even if they had made backups of there data, it would have been lost if it was sitting next to their computer. If you truly care about your data and cannot afford to lose it, you need an offsite backup like Carbonite. I cannot recommend this product highly enough.

7 I could go on about it s benefits but for more information check out my website, I do not make money from it in any way, I m just a die-hard fan and it has saved my mother, my wife and I on numerous occasions.