My Vista Backup Solution

[Bill Yanaire]

I have Vista Ultimate and I didn't want to use any of the "built in"
backups, third party backups because I like to know where my data is. For
instance, I have created a folder on the root of D:. It is called "My
Documents". I use Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc... and I also store digital
photographs on the D: drive. Each week or so, I go into Outlook and do an
export to D:\My Documents\Outlook Backup. I name each file that I save
Outlook_Backup_yyyy_mm_dd. This way I can have multiple copies and I won't
overwrite anything.

I went into the options screen for the Microsoft Applications and made the
default file locations D:\My Documents. All my documents now reside in one
place.

Under D:\My Documents I have created a folder called D:\My Documents\Digital
Photos. I place all my photos in aptly named folders. I know where
everything is.


When it's time to do a backup, I insert a blank DVD into the drive, navigate
to the D:\My Documents folder and drag over what I want (Using Nero to do
the writing). Simple. Easy. All my data gets backed up. Even if I didn't
use Nero, I could drag the folders over to the DVD drive and have the OS
write them out.

When the backup is finished, I then insert the DVD back into the drive, and
copy a random folder or file back to the hard drive so I know the backup
worked correctly. Sometimes it's necessary to do a restore to make sure
your backup solution is working.

I place my data on a seperate drive, D: just in case my C: drive dies, or I
want to reload the OS. This way I have no worries about losing data when I
do a backup.

I have had hard drive crashes, I have had opportunities to reload the OS
because I want to start fresh, and I never have to worry about losing my
data. Hope this helps. Remember, it's not IF your hard drive will crash,
it's WHEN.

 

[Richard Urban]

I have been keeping all of my user created documents on other that drive C:
since 1993. In 1993 I created a .zip command to backup everything I wanted
by double clicking a desktop icon. Simple and direct.

Since 1994 I have been dual booting with a "spare" O/S - so I could continue
to work if WWFG 3.11 crashed (it always did). And, back then I was a
beginner in home computers - even though I had spent years using computers
in manufacturing processes.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Michael Solomon]

I have Vista Ultimate and I didn't want to use any of the "built in"
backups, third party backups because I like to know where my data is. For
instance, I have created a folder on the root of D:. It is called "My
Documents". I use Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc... and I also store digital
photographs on the D: drive. Each week or so, I go into Outlook and do an
export to D:\My Documents\Outlook Backup. I name each file that I save
Outlook_Backup_yyyy_mm_dd. This way I can have multiple copies and I won't
overwrite anything.

I went into the options screen for the Microsoft Applications and made the
default file locations D:\My Documents. All my documents now reside in
one place.

Under D:\My Documents I have created a folder called D:\My
Documents\Digital Photos. I place all my photos in aptly named folders.
I know where everything is.


When it's time to do a backup, I insert a blank DVD into the drive,
navigate to the D:\My Documents folder and drag over what I want (Using
Nero to do the writing). Simple. Easy. All my data gets backed up.
Even if I didn't use Nero, I could drag the folders over to the DVD drive
and have the OS write them out.

When the backup is finished, I then insert the DVD back into the drive,
and copy a random folder or file back to the hard drive so I know the
backup worked correctly. Sometimes it's necessary to do a restore to make
sure your backup solution is working.

I place my data on a seperate drive, D: just in case my C: drive dies, or
I want to reload the OS. This way I have no worries about losing data
when I do a backup.

I have had hard drive crashes, I have had opportunities to reload the OS
because I want to start fresh, and I never have to worry about losing my
data. Hope this helps. Remember, it's not IF your hard drive will crash,
it's WHEN.

I have generally followed a similar approach. However, in Vista, some of my
applications insisted on putting their data in the Documents folder on the C
drive. The specific application(s) refused to open the files by default
when placed elsewhere. I could open the files from within the app but it
would not automatically open to those files when the application was opened
and in some cases, even when I opened the file in the alternative location,
it would create a new default in Documents on the C drive.

Hence, I keep my backups on other drives, actually I copy them to multiple
locations, at least two of which are off my hard drive. In addition to my
backups created in Migo, formerly Stomp, PC Backup I also save files to
additional locations beyond their default save location.

If I could put them all on a separate drive as you have done and I used to
do prior to Vista, I would do so but some of my applications wouldn't
cooperate.

 

[DanS]

Remember, it's not IF your hard
drive will crash, it's WHEN.

My hard drive failed when there was power supply event of unknown origin.

This took out 2 separate physical HD's simultaneously. I had used to back
up from c to d, one drive to the other.

For some odd reason, about 2 weeks prior to that, out of the blue I decided
to copy my data to a network drive as well.

I didn't lose too much of the important stuff...CAD drawing, PCB designs,
programming efforts, as that is my data, and hadn't done much in those two
weeks.

I see you backup to DVD after the backup drive, so you're safer from a
disaster like that, but I still try to stress to people that backing up to
a drive inside the same PC, while usually would be good enough, there's
still a chance for losing it all.

 

[Adam Albright]

My hard drive failed when there was power supply event of unknown origin.

This took out 2 separate physical HD's simultaneously. I had used to back
up from c to d, one drive to the other.

For some odd reason, about 2 weeks prior to that, out of the blue I decided
to copy my data to a network drive as well.

I didn't lose too much of the important stuff...CAD drawing, PCB designs,
programming efforts, as that is my data, and hadn't done much in those two
weeks.

I see you backup to DVD after the backup drive, so you're safer from a
disaster like that, but I still try to stress to people that backing up to
a drive inside the same PC, while usually would be good enough, there's
still a chance for losing it all.

I backup to external drives. That way they're never on accept when
backing up so immune to power surges, less wear since the drive isn't
spinning constantly, etc..

Backing up to only a DVD is too risky. DVDs can fail for no reason out
of the blue too. If you want to be extra safe backup to different
media. Since I do video work I make three backups.

1. one burned to DVD.
2. one on an external drive.
3. one more to DV tape, playable by a digital camera or deck and
easily recaptured if disaster strikes.

 

[Billh]

I have Vista Ultimate and I didn't want to use any of the "built in"
backups, third party backups because I like to know where my data is. For
instance, I have created a folder on the root of D:. It is called "My
Documents". I use Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc... and I also store digital
photographs on the D: drive. Each week or so, I go into Outlook and do an
export to D:\My Documents\Outlook Backup. I name each file that I save
Outlook_Backup_yyyy_mm_dd. This way I can have multiple copies and I won't
overwrite anything.

I went into the options screen for the Microsoft Applications and made the
default file locations D:\My Documents. All my documents now reside in
one place.

Under D:\My Documents I have created a folder called D:\My
Documents\Digital Photos. I place all my photos in aptly named folders.
I know where everything is.


When it's time to do a backup, I insert a blank DVD into the drive,
navigate to the D:\My Documents folder and drag over what I want (Using
Nero to do the writing). Simple. Easy. All my data gets backed up.
Even if I didn't use Nero, I could drag the folders over to the DVD drive
and have the OS write them out.

When the backup is finished, I then insert the DVD back into the drive,
and copy a random folder or file back to the hard drive so I know the
backup worked correctly. Sometimes it's necessary to do a restore to make
sure your backup solution is working.

I place my data on a seperate drive, D: just in case my C: drive dies, or
I want to reload the OS. This way I have no worries about losing data
when I do a backup.

I have had hard drive crashes, I have had opportunities to reload the OS
because I want to start fresh, and I never have to worry about losing my
data. Hope this helps. Remember, it's not IF your hard drive will crash,
it's WHEN.

I hope you add one more thing to your routine and that is take the DVD off
site.

 

[Bill Yanaire]

Actually, I backup to two DVD's and keep one of them off site, just in case
the house burns down. You are right, DVD's can fail and since external hard
drives are pretty cheap these days, I think I'll get one and copy to the
external drive and also keep it off site. I will probably get two and do a
rotation, keeping one at home and the other off site.

Thanks for the advice.