"Backup Computer Data - What to Backup and How Often?"
Why backup computer data is so critical? Do you know that all the important files are stored in your computer hard disk drive? This device will not be good forever, it's just a matter of when the problem will persist.
The unexpected computer glitches always happen - whether it's the hard drives failure, or files become corrupted, viruses attacked, power failures and spikes, or you accidentally delete an essential file, or something else makes it impossible to open and read a file.
That's why you need to keep a copy of all your important data (files) somewhere else. But most of us don't bother to make regular backup copies of the important files stored on our computers until after we experience a loss.
What types of data files to backup?
The information on your hard drives-including personnel files, financial records, browser bookmarks and accumulated e-mail messages, among other things is often more valuable than the computer hardware.
To elaborate in more details, here are the types of files you can backup:
(1) Personnel data files
All of your files including Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, graphics files, audio & video files, software, etc. You'll also want to keep a copy of all the programs and the serial number for the program you use so that if necessary they may be easily reinstalled at a later date.
(2) Business files
If you use your computer for business purposes you will also need to backup all the information from your financial software, inventory control, customer databases, software drivers and other specialist business files. If some of the software is in the CD/DVD format, do keep it in the safe place.
(3) Internet URLs, E-mail folders and address books
This includes Internet Explorer Favorites and/or Firefox bookmarks, Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express emails and the address books. All the browsers extensions and add-ins as well as the username and password that you need to remember.
(4) Windows Registry
The Registry is the heart and soul of Windows but usually it's also one of the least-understood components. It's the central repository for configuration data that control all the hardware and software of a PC.
(5) Hard disk drive (HDD) Partitions / Entire HDD
You also can backup the entire HDD partition or entire disk. This will include the operating system and all the applications and files in it. To make such an exact copy of your drive, you must use the disk cloning or disk imaging software such as Norton Ghost or Partition Magic which will be cover in the later section.
How often should you make a backup of your files?
You should know that the backup computer data is crucial but how often?
Ask yourself: How much data can you afford to lose? If you work on your documents each day, you need to backup at least once a day. If you're running a business on your computers, you may want to make backups at least once a week or maybe more often than that.
Of course, it's always a good idea to make an additional unscheduled backup whenever you create or revise a very important file or document. If a file takes a lot of time to reconstruct your work, make frequent backups.
Note: Data stored on your laptop computer are always in danger of being stolen, so you should make backup copies of new files and documents every day.
So, you know that backup computer data is really important to prevent data loss or anything happens to your computer or laptop. I hope this can alert you to backup your important data more often.
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