In-File Delta Enhances Offsite Secure Backup Technology

We are all aware of the benefits backing up to a remote location. However the greatest problem with backing up data via the internet is explained as follows:-

Large files x low bandwidth = Massive backup time.

In-file delta helps to greatly reduce this issue. Files up to 300GB can use In File Delta technology. This basically means, after initial file backup, only changes in that file will be sent to an offsite location. This makes offsite secure backup more usable for large databases like Microsoft Exchange.

Here you can learn what in-file delta technology is and how in-file delta can be used to backup large database files (e.g. a 10GB Outlook.pst file) without uploading the whole database file everyday.

In-file delta technology is an advanced data block matching algorithm which has the intelligence to pick up changes (delta) of file content between two files when one of the files is not accessible and use the delta information between two files to rebuild one file from the other. Are you with me so far? Using this algorithm, daily backing up of large file (e.g. a 10GB Outlook.pst file) over low-speed internet connection is made possible because it requires only the changes of information since last backup to be sent to complete the backup of a large file (here we assume that the full backup of the file has been saved on the backup server already).

This is what would happen to the backup of a 10GB Outlook.pst file when it is backed up by PerfectBackup OBM with in-file delta technology.

The whole files (10GB), along with its checksum (128-bit) file, are backed up to the backup server. This can be done directly through the internet or indirectly using the seed load utility on a removable hard disk.

When backup runs again later (normally the next day), PerfectBackup OBM will download a checksum listing of all data blocks of the full backup file from the backup server and use it to pick up all changes that have been made to the current Outlook.pst file from the first full backup.

Changes detected are then saved in a delta file which is uploaded to the backup server. (This delta file is assumed to be small because the content of all PST files doesn't change lot of even after it has been updated)

Subsequent backups of this 10GB Outlook.pst file will go through step ii and step iii again. As explained, only a small delta file will be uploaded to the backup server.

With in-file delta technology, daily backing up of large file over low-speed internet connection is now possible

Example 1: If you are adding 200MB to Outlook.pst everyday, the first delta backup will upload a 200MB delta file and the next delta backup will upload a 400MB delta file. This will go on until Day 50 when the delta file required to be backed up reached 10GB. This delta file size (10GB) is now is 50% of the Outlook.pst which is now 20GB (remember that you have added 100MB to this file everyday). If the [Delta Ratio] is set to be 50% (default), the whole Outlook.pst file will be uploaded again.

Example 2: If you are adding 50MB to Outlook.pst everyday, the first delta backup will upload a 50MB delta file and the next delta backup will upload a 100MB delta file. This will go on until Day 100 because it is the [Maximum number of delta] (default) allowed in this backup set and the whole Outlook.pst file will be uploaded again.

All delta files are generated with respect to changes made since the last full backup file (i.e. differential backup). This means that only last full backup file and the last delta file are required to restore the latest snapshot of a backup file. This means that other intermediate delta files are only required if you want to restore other snapshots of a backup file.

In-File delta does differential backup rather than incremental backup. It is designed this way so that a corrupted delta file would only make one particular version of a backup file non-recoverable and all other backups created by other delta files of the same file would still be intact.

The full backup file, its checksum file and the last delta file uploaded (if more than one delta files have been uploaded to the backup server) are always stored in the data area. This means that these files are not affected by the setting of the retention policy and will always be kept on the backup server. This is done this way because all these files are required to get the latest snapshot of the backup file and they should not be removed from the backup server by the retention area cleanup routine. All other intermediate delta files are stored in the retention area.

To evaluate the PerfectBackup software free of charge for a month with in-file delta, please visit http://www.perfectbackup.co.uk/products

Data Backup, The Why How When for Business or Home

1. What you should be doing about data backup and why?

2. Fine electro-mechanical devices to backup.

3. Meant to do it!

4. Once Bitten.

5. Backup, a mistaken or confused name.

6. What do you need to do today to start a backup plan or backup program?

7. Let's get organised.

8. Things to save or to backup.

9. Our recommended Backup System.

10. Near worst case scenario. When you most need a backup to restore from.

11. Our own system. How we backup our data.

12. Remember, Backup, start today.

1. Why do a data backup?

What you should be doing and why?

Computers always go perfectly. Right? What would you do without your PC? Computers can and do fail usually at the worst possible time. They may get stolen, trashed or crash. Most of us deal with the problems as and when they occur.

There are times though, when a little bit of planning and forethought pays big dividends.

2. Fine electro-mechanical devices.

The hard drive in your computer has both electronic and mechanical components that work with very fine tolerances where the head literally flies a fraction of a millimeter above the disks fast spinning surface. Measurements a fraction of a human hair thickness are not unusual. So bumping or dropping them or having PC power problems causes the components to literally crash and may result in irreparable damage.

3. Meant to do it!

Most business people and many home users are aware of the need to Backup (or copy, in easy terms) their information to another place for safe keeping. After failures they often say 'I meant to do it but never made the time.'

4. Once Bitten.

Every day before they walk out of the office they'll religiously run or at least start the backup going. In the morning they'll check and make sure all went OK with the Backup and look at any errors reported.

5. Backup, a mistaken or confused name!

Simply put, Data Backup is the ability to recreate or restore the system you had working before the PC failure or loss.

It may be called Copy, Save, Burn, Write. Unfortunately the word Backup is often used different ways. And means different things in different places!

Bookkeeping software typically prompts you to backup your data (the company accounts and ledgers, in other words). But the backup is usually on the PC not another disk or computer. So if that computer goes missing, then the company bookkeeping info is gone too.

You need to do this type of data Backup for bookkeeping and company client lists.

But there's more to do. Make a note where it goes to so you can Backup or copy it to another disk, CD, ZIP or Flash device you can take home.

6. What do you need to do today?

Simple. Work out what you use your computers for that you simply couldn't do without if it wasn't there tomorrow.

Would your business or personal relationships STOP without the ability to re-create the computer info you're using?

Please. Take a minute to read the full story below.

7. Let's get organised.

You'll need: -

any equipment and software to make the backup;

a plan to follow to do it regularly;

to backup what you should;

to store it somewhere safe;

to write down the backups done;

reminders to do it next time;

most of all the patience to wait and do it whenever it's due.

Lastly, it should be tested that you can recover from disaster if it ever occurs.

8. Things to save.

Information to Backup should include Documents; Spreadsheets;

Bookkeeping & Transaction data; Address Books; Lists; Emails; Personal information, Photos; Downloaded Programs and Licenses; Favorites;

Special things; Internet & Email settings; Regulatory matters.

Many of these items are irreplaceable, so they should be safeguarded.

9. Our recommended backup system.

Two copies, one at your place and one at a friends place.

Small Backup, things that change frequently, done daily.

Big Backup, total Backup of your PC because the info is organised in a disorganized sort of way, spread over the hard drive in hard to find places, done weekly or monthly.

More than one PC?

If you have more than one PC you may need to re-think and re-organise where information is stored in the computers.

A central point for all company data is easier to manage and Backup than data in all the odd places on the computer. You may investigate 'synchronizing' data so it's naturally on more than one PC.

10. Near worst case scenario.

If the Hard drive fails the information may be recoverable.

But it's a very expensive job by the professionals.

Occasionally one of our customers has needed to retrieve data from a dead hard drive. We recommend a particular company who has always managed to recover the data, but there's a lot of lost time and un-necessary expense especially when compared to the simple smart solution where you take all the necessary precautions and do the backup first.

We hope you never see one of these errors:-

an MYOB fatal error 1199 as one of our customers did recently. It translates to the data file causing this error is definitely unusable and irrepairable. It can only be fixed by restoring your data from your most recent backup. (Do you have a recent Backup?)

or HAL.DLL is missing or corrupt. It translated (in this case) to the Windows folder has disappeared. Anything at all that was stored in the windows folder is GONE. Windows needs to be re-installed from the original media (CD), Updated and Settings restored from a recent backup.

Occasionally we (you or I) will start working on a document or data file and have a little accident. Accidents happen to us all occasionally. The simplest way is often to simply restore from the most recent backup, or waste a lot of productive time just getting things back to the way before we commenced, and made the accident.

Just imagine what the worst case would be!

11. Our own system. How we backup.

Pixel ITT has these systems in place.

Daily, MYOB, when closing company data the data integrity is checked and Zipped up on the C Drive. It takes about 3 minutes.

Monday, 9am, Customer database and documents, Zipped into one file on C Drive. Takes 5 to 10 minutes at the start of day.

Monday to Friday, 9.50pm, Automatic Backup using XXCopy Pro of My Documents Folder which includes, MYOB, Customer data, Documents, saved to a redundant (older) PC as a file server, 5 minutes unattended. Older PC must be turned on and available on the office network.

Monday to Friday, 10pm, Automatic Unattended Backup of daily data important to business, MYOB, Customer data, Documents, Security info saved to CD, 3 to 5 minutes usually unattended.

Every 2nd Saturday, 2 secondary PC's, Full incremental backup, to CD on main PC. Takes 10 to 20 minutes attended.

Every 4th Saturday, Main PC, Full incremental backup to CD on main PC, takes 60 to 120 minutes attended.

What's missing in our backup system?

Off-site backup copy could be more recent but has the main ingredients of our business in a workable version.

Backup test has been performed to restore secondary PC's only. The main PC will be done when time permits or it becomes necessary.

12. Remember, Backup, start today.

We tell our customers, whether they're small business clients or home computer users at every chance we get, to backup, somehow, but backup regardless. We've all got cd burners and cd writing software these days, but still most clients do not have a recent data backup or use the backup software that came with their computer. If the worst disaster happens, we're called in to clean up the situation and regretfully tell the customer if they didn't backup before the computer was stolen or broken there's really nothing we can do to ease their pain whether it's business critical data or data like home pictures and email address contact lists.

So BACKUP, Backup, backup just do a BACKUP.

Greg Martyn is a partner in Pixel ITT providing computer service and support in the St George and Sutherland area south of Sydney Australia. Pixel ITT also supply software for backup, internet security, antivirus and firewall in Australia. Greg Martyn has been in a technicial role since 1967, and until 2000 worked for OTC and Telstra. Pixel ITT use and recommend the software we sell including EMCDantz Retrospect Pro which is our main backup tool. Trial software and more info is available through http://www.pixelitt.com.au.

Setting up a Tape Backup Strategy for your Business

So you know a little bit about tape backup, but you're wondering how to set up a tape backup strategy for your business. Well, let's take a look at 3 simple steps to setting up a complete backup solution.

Step 1: Purchase your tape backup hardware

Firstly, purchase the tape backup hardware. If you need to perform file server backup (or Exchange Server backup or SQL Server backup) for small business, then one of the following tape drives should suffice:

* Travan cartridge drive (up to 10 Gb)

* DDS tape backup drive (up to 20 Gb)

* DDS tape backup drive with hardware data compression (up to 40 Gb)

Then purchase the necessary tapes for your backup rotation strategy. A good Grandfather-Father-Child variation will require 10 tapes or 14 tapes.

Step 2: Purchase your tape backup software

When it comes to tape backup software, one option is to use NTBackup -- the standard Windows backup program. The problem with NTBackup is that it is too hard to use. While an expert should be able to schedule backup jobs using NTBackup, what you really want is something a novice can setup in minutes.

What you really want to do is invest in some quality backup software for your business? Well, if you run a small business, you'll want to avoid those expensive brands! They're designed for large corporations. You should really be looking for software for tape backup that does everything you need, but is affordable at the same.

Look for a backup program that's designed specially for small business instead. Look for a product that is advertised as being simple to use. Remember, you don't want software that requires an expert to run it. Download a trial version of the backup software and try it out for a month or so. If everything works smoothly and you're happy with the product, go ahead and make a purchase!

Step 3: Continually perform your backups

So you've attached the tape drive to your server and installed the software. You've configured the software to run your tape rotation scheme and everything's raring to go. So how do you go about performing backups?

Well, at the end of each working day, put the tape into the drive. And as obvious as this sounds, the correct tape should be placed in the drive. For example, placing the "Week 2" tape instead of the "Week 3" tape in the tape drive will reduce the effectiveness of your tape rotation strategy! Your tape backup software should take care of the rest.

In addition, you should monitor the results of each backup to check for errors. For example, if a tape wears out and data cannot be verified, you need to take action and replace that tape. If some problem prevented a backup from completing, you need to know about it so that you can re-run the backup the next morning.

Be sure to also follow your manufacturer's guidelines for drive cleaning and maintenance.

Final notes

As strange as this seems, you should be at the mercy of your tape backup software. And the more control it exerts over you, the better! Let me explain...

NTBackup assumes that you insert the correct tape and it doesn't inform you of any errors. You are responsible for selecting the tape according to your tape rotation scheme, and the onus is on you to read result logs and discover if any errors occurred.

This means that the file backup process is tedious and prone to human error. A complete solution for tape backup should take charge of your backup strategy for you.

A tape backup software should email tape rotation instructions and the results of backups to you or your secretary, making your task far simpler and minimizing the chance of human error. Select the right server backup software and you're already most of the way to implementing a complete tape backup strategy for your business.

Linus Chang is a backup expert and the lead developer of BackupAssist -- backup software that is simple and affordable, and perfect for small and medium businesses. Protect your Windows servers, including SQL Server and Exchange Server, to tape, REV drive, hard drive, NAS and more, at a fraction of the cost of other backup programs. Transforms NTBackup into a script-free and simple-to-use tool.

Learn How To Make Data Backup Over The Internet!

Why should you backup your data on the Internet?

There are several reasons.

* The backup is located at a secure place for away from your computer.

* It's is easy to do.

* Free available disk space on your web site can be used for storage.

* Disk space on remote server can be used for storage.

* It's a practical backup solution for small businesses and home users.

* It's gives extra security for documents and files.

There are basically three different types of data backup you can make!

* Full Backup of the hard disk.

* Full disk image backup for fast recovery.

* Backup of specific files and folders.

Online backup of a complete hard disk is not practical to do. Although, it can be done. The size requirement and the transfer speed over the Internet makes it yet not powerful enough to do. However in the future complete backup of hard disks online will be more common. Backup over the Internet is best suited for storing limited numbers of specific files and folders.

To do this you need an FTP software which makes it possible to move files over the internet. FTP stand for "file transfer protocol" and is the most commonly used method of transferring files between computers over the Internet.

Use FTP transfer and backup to your web site or to a remote server as a safeguard of your vital data files!

Learn how at http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com/ftp-backup.html

Normally you don't need to backup all the content of your hard disk, to recreate your data.

To be able to make a full recovery of your data, make sure that you keep CD's of all your installation programs and operating system in a safe place. In addition, if you have installed software from the Internet you need to keep copies of the installation programs as backup together with the installation codes.

After you have done that, you need to identify the files and folders that are important to backup.

These are the files you use on a daily basis either in private or in your business. If you are using Windows this can be files in My Document folder and/or your Outlook email files.

These are the files you need to backup so that you can recreate your computer back to what it was if you have lost your data.

If you transfer files from your hard disk directly to the remote site you risk exposing your data to hackers. Your data are not secure from outside preying eyes.

To get full protection you should use a backup software to first create a backup file which is stored temporarily on you hard drive. This file is then transferred with an FTP program to the online server.

There are also a number of online backup services you can subscribe to for this purpose. They often use their own transfer protocol.

Online backups should be made at regular intervals. It is also a practical way to make backup if you use a laptop and are on the move, given you have access to an Internet connection, of course.

If you get a hard disk crash or if your computer gets lost, then you need to be able to recover your data back to what it was

The first step you have to take is to install the operation system and the software from the installation CD's which you have stored in a safe place.

Next step is to download the backup or backups you are keeping on the Internet.

If you store your backup on a web site or on a server you should make sure that the backup is encrypted so that nobody else is able to read it.

You must keep the server's username and password you are using as well as the password you use for encryption of the backup written down on paper in a safe place so that you can recreate your data.

Full backup can be made using other types of media such as tapes, DVD's, on different disks or on networks.

To do this you need to have access to such devices.

This will cost you money.

The memory requirement for today's computers has increased. The cost of regular backup on tapes or on DVD's is high.

If you are an entrepreneur or a home computer user, this may not be an option available for you.

What happens if your computer gets stolen?

What happen if the building you keep your computer are struck by fire and destroyed?

Laptop and mobile computer are especially prone to theft. Not only because it is easy to carry away, but also because it is easy to get money by selling.

Therefore, you need to make backup of your important data on a location that is different from where you have your computer. Internet backup of data files is an attractive and cheap solution.

Per Strandberg has interest in backup technology and he is running an information site on backup and data security at http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com

Learn how to make secure online data backup using ftp at http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com/ftp-backup.html

Backup Software

Creating a backup for the data in a computer or any electronic storage device is very important. Most equipment, including personal computers, have a good chance of "crashing," which is the failure of the hard disk on which the data is stored. When a hard disk crashes, all the data is inevitably lost.

This possible loss is the main reason for creating backups of the data that we have and that we are likely to use sometime in the future. The frequency of backup creation depends on the usage level of the system, the kinds of files stored, the frequency of changes made to the data, and the importance of the data. Some people store a lot of files on their computers and keep adding new ones continuously. Such people need a daily or even an hourly backup.

There are different kinds of backups: full backup (creates backup for every file and folder in the system); incremental backup (only the changes are copied); unattended backup (the backup can be programmed to take place at a certain time without the active participation of the user); archive or disk image (option to create backup for just files or the whole disk); differential backup (creates backup for only changed files and newer versions of the files); and snapshot backup.

Backups can be made into a whole lot of different devices: compact disks, DVDs, floppy disks, tapes, printouts, removable hard disks, online servers, and so on. Backups can also be made into fixed media like another part of the hard disk or to another computer on the same network. Each of these has different capacities, security limits, conveniences, and risks. It is advisable to back up into more than one media for reducing risk.

The main criteria to be considered while purchasing a backup software program are the ease of operation, ability to backup without continuous monitoring, ability to handle different backup formats like hard disks and CDs, ability to restore with minimum errors, easy accessibility to backup files, ability to have different compression levels for different kinds of files, ability to backup over FTP, USB drives and networks, and ability to verify whether the files have been saved well.

There are several kinds of backup software available today. Some of the best programs include the Genie Backup Manager, NTI BackupNow!, Novastor NovaBackup, Handy Backup, Double Image, ABC Backup, Absolute Backup, Active Backup Expert, Advanced Backup, AKG Backup, Argentum Software, Avail Solutions, BackRex Backup, Backup Buddy, Data Sheriff, Disk2disk and several others. There are also free downloadable backup software programs such as TaskZip, EZBack-it-up, SyncBack, IceMirror, Version, Freebyte, Back4Win, MOB, My Own Backup, Workgroup, Simply Safe, and many more. Most of these software packages come with many other advanced functions such as password protection, restoring damaged backups, filtering of files and storing them accordingly, compression capabilities and several others. Backup software can be downloaded for free from the Internet. Some advanced software programs have to be purchased.

Backup Software provides detailed information on Backup Software, CD ROM Backup Software, Free Backup Software, Computer Backup Software and more. Backup Software is affiliated with Network Status Monitoring Software.

An Introduction to Tape Backup

If you run a small business, chances are you're saving important files to a server. But what happens when disaster strikes? How are you ensuring that your files won't be lost? Many people fail to realize that the loss of files could cripple their business. You can insure your office and equipment, but you can't insure files. You can't repair or buy back lost files. Ipso facto, they are lost!

This brings us to the concept of disaster recovery. What is disaster recovery? If you're thinking that disaster recovery is about frantically trying to get back data that's already been lost, then you're already behind the 8-ball! Disaster recovery is about safeguarding your organization's data so that it can be safely restored in event of a crippling disaster. And having an industry-standard file backup strategy is undoubtedly the most important part of disaster recovery.

What you have to do is ensure that all files on the server are backed up to another storage medium -- tape, removable hard disk, NAS device, and so on. Most businesses choose to use tape. Let's look at how you can set up a tape backup strategy for your own business.

1. Tape -- the perfect backup medium

Isn't tape an anachronism in the age of optical disks, removable hard drives and a plethora of whiz-bang, random-access storage media? Tape is indeed a dinosaur in relative terms, but it's ideal for backup. Tape is slow, but can store a lot of data... one mid-range tape should be enough to backup your entire server. Plus, tape is extremely cheap -- mid-range tapes cost around $20 each.

2. When should you backup?

Typically, tape backup is performed at the end of each day. Just put in the tape and let the backup process run overnight. If your server ever suffers a catastrophic disaster, you have at least saved all your files from the previous day.

3. Tape Rotation

The ideal tape backup solution would involve using a new tape for each backup. This means purchasing a new tape for every day of your business's operations. This is hardly cost-effective for your business. Tape is cheap, but not that cheap!

This is why we speak of tape rotation. Tape rotation means to reuse tapes from previous backups. The simplest tape rotation scheme is to have one tape for each day of the working week. Tapes are labelled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

You can restore data from any one of the tapes in your library, or in this case, any day in the past the week. This strategy requires only five tapes, but only provides one week's data backup history.

4. Grandfather-Father-Son -- A Case Study

The grandfather-father-son schedule is the most widely used method, and involves backing up data in the following way:

* daily -- on the "son tapes"

* weekly -- on the "father tapes"

* monthly -- on the "grandfather tapes"

This system is far more powerful than the five-tape rotation, but requires more tapes.

This strategy provides you with the ability to restore data from the last week, plus any Monday over the last month, plus any month for as many monthly tapes as you have. Variations on this scheme are available, and provide a trade-off between the number of tapes required, and the number of monthly tapes available.

5. Different types of backup

Different types of backups are available in backup software.

* Full -- all files, system data

* Differential -- all files added or changed since the last full backup

* Incremental -- all files added or changed since the last full, differential or incremental backup

* Daily -- all files added or changed on the day of the backup

A Full backup will copy all files and system data to the backup media. It allows for the complete restore of all data from one single tape.

Differential, Incremental and Daily are partial backups are designed to reduce amount of data backed-up to the media, resulting in faster backups. To restore data using one of these backups, the last Full backup tape will also be required, along with any other partial backups since the last Full backup.

6. Tape backup software

At this point you may be thinking that performing tape backup is a complex task. Tape rotations, incremental backups... sure, you can try to do this manually, but this would make the backup process hiddeously difficult and prone to human error! The solution is to invest in a good piece of server backup software that will manage and schedule your tape backups for you.

What should you look for in tape backup software? For many small business owners, the price is crucial. Many brands of backup software are just too expensive -- in the $1000+ range -- and contain features that you'll never need. Look for a backup utility that's designed specially for small business instead. It should be simple-to-use, reliable and affordable. Choose a good tape backup software and you'll be well on your way to safeguarding your files and data.

Linus Chang is a backup expert and the lead developer of BackupAssist-- backup software that is simple and affordable, and perfect for small and medium businesses. Protect your Windows servers, including SQL Server and Exchange Server, to tape, REV drive, hard drive, NAS and more, at a fraction of the cost of other backup programs. Designed as a fix for NTBackup bugs and issues.

Backup Tips And Strategies For Artists

A backup, in computer lingo, refers to making a copy of

important data for the purpose of data recovery. Should

the important data get damaged or lost, a properly made

backup will restore it all. The word "data" refers to

anything stored on a computer system: images, programs,

document, videos, etc. Taking backups of important data

can prevent loss of valuable work and the time needed

to recreate it.

In this article we'll take a look at common backup types

and strategies, data compression, and common backup media

types. A real life backup scenario will illustrate my

own backup procedures. The article will end with general

backup tips.

COMMON BACKUP TYPES

The best backup methods rely on simple and time proven

concepts. New or unnecessary technologies are best

avoided till proven reliable and necessary. The simpler

the procedure, the more likely it is to work correctly.

A full-backup consist of making a copy of all important

data. When you copy a folder with important files,

from say a hard drive to a floppy, you actually make

a full-backup of those files. Due to simplicity,

this approach is the most reliable of all backup

types. Its main advantage is ease of backup creation

and restoration. The main disadvantage is that the

backup will use as much space as the important data. If

the data is large, the backup process can be very

resource intensive in terms of time and the processing

power needed to carry out. Imagine the time needed to

full-backup a digital library consisting of millions of

books. Such operation takes days.

An incremental-backup works differently in that it backs

up only the modified files since the last backup. When

using this method, a full backup is created first and

then incremental backups are run on regular basis. For

large amounts of data this method is often the only

practical way to backup. It takes up less space than a

full backup and is less resource intensive to run. On

the other hand, contrary to full backups, incremental

backups need dedicated backup software to keep track of

what files to backup.

Compressing the backup data is a popular option. Such

practice lowers the amount of space needed on the backup

media. Although compression adds an additional layer

of complexity, it can be a good (if relied on wisely)

and sometimes necessary solution.

ESSENTIAL BACKUP STRATEGIES

Regardless of the backup type and data, the following

backup strategies should always be followed:

backup should be taken on a regular basis
backup should be automatic and need as little human supervision as possible
backup should be stored in a safe remote location
backup should rely on well established hardware and software technologies

Backup should be taken on a regular basis. The more

frequently the data changes the more often it should

be backed-up. For example, some of my most frequently

updated files (website files, source code, notes,

etc.) are backed-up daily. Files that are less

frequently updated are backed-up monthly.

Backup should be automatic. Except for the initial

configuration of the backup program and the occasional

supervision, the whole backup process should be automatic

and completely transparent. That is, the backup should

run by itself without causing any attention unless

necessary.

Backup should be stored in a safe remote location. Should

the location of the important data get damaged,

destroyed, or exposed to theft - a remotely stored backup

becomes invaluable. How remote? Disasters like fire,

flood, tornado, earthquake, etc., can cause widespread

damage. Ideally a backup should be stored in a far away

enough, minimal risk location.

Backup should rely on well established hardware and

software technologies. Such technologies are typically in

widespread use - thus cheaper and easier to troubleshoot,

or get help in the event of failure. As established

technologies become gradually replaced by new and

better ones, so should the backup media and hardware

and, if used, the software to re/store the data. There

is no guarantee that the common backup media of today,

like CD or DVD, will be usable in ten years. The same

is true for software. A good data preservation strategy

should include continual migration of the backup data

to mature and well established technologies of the time.

A BIT ABOUT DATA COMPRESSION

Compression makes data smaller and thus is a popular

backup option. Its main advantage is lower backup

cost due to lower space use. The downside is the time

needed to compress the data and later to uncompress it

for restoration.

Many compression formats exist. Each format use some

sort of compression method called an algorithm. There

are two types of data compression algorithms: "lossy"

and "lossless". Lossless compression reduce the data

size without modifying its content. Lossy compression

modify the data content to make it even smaller than

lossless compression.

Some compression formats, like MP3 or JPG, are highly

specialized. They use lossy algorithms and produce very

small file sizes but can only compress a particular

type of data. Other formats, like ZIP or BZIP2, are

of general purpose. They rely on lossless compression

algorithms and can work on any data. However, they will

never outdo special purpose formats like MP3 or JPG.

PNG and TIFF are popular image file formats which support

lossless compression.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of lossy compression,

JPG, MP3 or any other lossy format degrade the original

data to some extent. In other words, saving an image or

music in a lossy file format will make it different then

the original. Usually the difference, called compression

artifacts, is so small that most of us don't see or

hear it.

For the above reasons, lossy compression should never

be used when saving important data. Only lossless

compression is suitable for that. PNG and TIFF are

examples of image file formats that support lossless

compression. Such formats are ideal for storing

hi-resolution master images.

Finally, compression takes time and normally uses all

available processing power. Generally, the better the

compression the slower it is. Some compression algorithms

are extremely good at compressing but also extremely

slow. For backup purposes, one should evaluate common

compression formats and set for the most suitable one.

CONSIDER YOUR NEEDS

Some additional issues need to be considered when

designing the most suitable backup strategy for own use:

the type of backup files
if compression is desired, what compression to use and how
backup storage media

As noted earlier the best backups are simply copies of

important data. Such approach works especially well for

artists who rely on compressed image formats like PNG

or TIFF.

Note the difference between "built-in" image compression,

done every time you save an image in a format that

supports it, and compressing the backup data - applied

to all backup data regardless of what it is.

What backup compression to use, and if to use it at all,

depends on the type of backup data. Generally,

text files (TXT, HTML, XML, etc) can be compressed

the most of all file types. Images that have been

compressed with their own algorithms (PNG, JPG, TIFF,

etc) can't later be compressed much if at all. Images

which don't have own compression (BMP, TGA, etc) can

often be compressed quite a bit, though this depends on

the actual image data.

Thus if most of your important art data consist of

images that are already compressed, there is no need to

compress the backup. Text files on the other hand, can

be compressed a lot and save significant amount of space.

There are a few other things to consider when compressing

backup data. What compression program to use and how

to compress the files.

ZIP is the most commonly used compression format today -

it's fast and compresses well. It's been around for a

long time and is universally available. But there are

other, less known, good alternatives. For example,

7ZIP, RAR, and BZIP2 compress significantly better than

ZIP and are only slightly slower.

Finally, how to compress backups. Basically one can

either create a compressed archive of many files, or

compress each file individually. The main disadvantage

to creating a compressed archive is the possibility

of losing all files in the archive if the archive

gets corrupted and can not be recovered. On the

other hand, if files are compressed individually one

looses only one file - should it get corrupted and be

unrecoverable. Additionally, since a compressed file

use less space than uncompressed, it's less likely to

get corrupted. Thus it's more safe to compress files

individually.

WHICH BACKUP MEDIA TO USE

The commonly used backup media today are hard drives,

tapes and CDs/DVDs. Hard drives are the fastest and

often the best option for large amounts of data. They are

also the most expensive and not very durable. Tapes are

slow but can store a lot of data and can last decades.

CDs/DVDs are probably the most common backup media used

today due to its very low cost. Unfortunately, just

like hard drives, most have a relatively short expected

life span of between two to five years. Internet backup

solutions are also becoming a popular backup option.

Reliability is important to consider when choosing the

backup media. How robust is the media and for how long

can it retain the data? The quality of the media plays

a significant role here. All media degrade over time,

but some degrade more than other. Most of the low cost

burnable CDs have a life span of around two years. Higher

quality CDs can last up to five. Very high quality

CDs with a gold layer are expected to last decades.

Generally, if the handling and storage conditions

are good, quality media should last at least few years

without data loss. However, unless the best quality media

is used, an annual full backup is probably the safest

prevention against data loss due to media degradation.

A combination of different media may often be the ideal

solution. For example, some of my own backup practices

include using an external hard drive to mirror (update)

certain parts of my computer hard drives. Twice a year

I burn all important data on several DVDs.

I recommend spending some time investigating the most

suitable media and the hardware to operate it. High

quality products will minimize the possibility of

backup failure.

THE NECESSITY OF VERIFYING BACKUPS

The most important aspect of taking backups is making

sure they are error free. The backup data may prove

useless if corrupted due to media or other error.

It's good practice to immediately test the backup for

its validity. Errors will be detected and a new backup

can be taken right away. Any respectable backup program

provides an option for data verification. What good is

a backup if its data is corrupted?

A REAL LIFE BACKUP SCENARIO

My most valuable data is my art data, website files,

source code, and various docs. All my hi-resolution work

is stored in either PNG or TIFF. Nearly all my reference

images are JPGs. Thus all my image data can be backed

up without the use of compression and save huge amounts

of backup time and space. I do compress 3d files which

don't use own compression. For that I use bzip2 with the

maximum compression setting. All the remaining data are

basically text files and are compressed individually

using either bzip2 or 7zip. Images and 3d files, even

compressed, can be huge in size. Not surprisingly over

90% of my backup space is used on art data.

I backup daily, monthly and twice a year. Once a day,

the files which are frequently updated (notes, work

in progress images, source code, website files, email,

etc.) are backed up to another hard drive. This happens

during the boot process and takes a few minutes. Once

a month I backup to a CD which also includes less

frequently updated files. A copy of that CD is stored

in a remote location. Twice a year I take full backup

and store it on several DVDs at a friends house. If I

work on something especially important, I store it daily

on a CD/DVD or a USB mem-stick. My most critical data

is also regularly encrypted and stored on a very remote

internet host. I wrote a script to run all these backups

automatically. With the exception of CD/DVD storage,

no manual work is involved.

As you can see, a custom backup solution can be quite

sophisticated yet simple to carry out. It can involve

a combination of different media and backup procedures

to optimally satisfy ones needs.

FINAL NOTES

Depending on your needs a dedicated backup software may

be a necessary investment. Make sure to research this

carefully. Usually, products from reputable companies

that specialize in certain solutions are best. There are

also many good open source or free software alternatives.

It's best to avoid products which rely on proprietary

or closed solutions. For example, a backup software

may store the backup data in an unknown format only

supported by this particular backup software. Avoid

that. If the company goes out of business and the

backup software breaks, your backup data may be lost

forever. Look for products that rely on well known,

mature, and ideally open technologies. For example,

PNG is an open format for storing image data. What this

means is that the specification, or blueprint, for that

format is publicly available for anyone to use it. This

increases compatibility and reduces reliance on any

specific vendor or product.

Most artists important data consists mainly of images

and 3d files. To save space rely on PNG, TIFF or JPG

for bitmap image formats. Vector images and 3d files

can be compressed individually if needed. A basic

backup software that simply copies specified files

or directories to the backup media may be all that

is needed. It's best to make two sets of the backup

data and store each at different location. One close

to home, like a friends place, or a bank box and the

other far away.

Setting up a proper backup strategy may initially require

a significant amount of time and cost money. There is

a lot to research and consider. In the end however,

a good backup procedure will prove an exceptionally

valuable investment. As you read this, your screen could

go blank due to a hard drive crash. All your valuable

data - years of work, reference images, documents,

photo albums, 3d files, email, etc., - could be lost

forever. Unless you were prepared and took a backup.

Dawid Michalczyk is a freelance illustrator and an artist. He has been creating computer graphics since the early 90s. To see examples of his work and other writings visit his website at http://www.art.eonworks.com. He can be reached at dm@eonworks.com

Backup Software- Don't Buy It!

Computer Backup- Forget About It!

Backup Software is for the birds! Computer Backup is too hard, too much trouble and a pain in the butt. Let's just forget about it.

Backup Software is touted as the savior of your computer's critical business and personal files. They claim that all computer hard drives (where our files are stored) eventually will have a 100% failure rate. They try to tell us that the failure of our hard drives is just a matter of WHEN, not IF.

Do your backups they shout!

Poppycock!

BACKUP SOFTWARE- LET'S GET REAL

You and I know the real story. The real story is that new computers are so well made that they almost never fail, right?

Therefore, we don't need to worry about buying backup software and setting up a computer backup system, do we? It would just be a waste time-- for sure!

After all we know that all the press about hard drive failures, natural disasters and terrorist attacks is just a conspiracy by the backup software companies to get us to buy their products.

Personally I never had a hard drive failure (that I recall). If my computer stops working for whatever reason, that's life.

Therefore, I ignore these software backup companies that try to push their backup software products on the unsuspecting public even though they make data and file restorations easy. I don't give them the time of day.

Therefore as you see, I don't need backup software, do you? Of course not.

BACKUP SOFTWARE- STARTING OVER WITHOUT IT IS EASY

In the unlikely event that I got a virus or a bunch of spyware on my computers I'll just bite the bullet and move on. After all, if I lost all my data to a virus, then so what? Who needs backup software?

Heck, I'd just buy a new computer and begin again and I'd still wouldn't need backup software because it's just too much hassle.

If ALL my business data was lost due to a hard drive crash or virus corruption then I'd just start my business over. No big deal. It's not that hard, right? Using backup software is just a pain.

BACKUP SOFTWARE FOOLISHNESS

So by now we're all agreed that using backup software for computer backup is just for the foolish, right? Right.

Who would want to use backup software that automatically and easily backs up EVERYTHING on your computer hard drive to a DVD Rewriteable disk or USB external hard drive? That would mean you could easily recover from any computer disaster. That makes too much sense and is far too logical.

They claim that backup software is a virtual computer insurance policy against fire, flood, theft, earthquake, hurricanes, tornados and terrorist attacks.

Balderdash!

Ridiculous.

Hey, the businesses who survived Hurricane Katrina didn't need backup software did they? OK, OK I admit a lot of businesses without backup software and off site backup lost EVERYTHING and now they cannot recover their data and reconstitute their business. But that's life. Now these businesses and their employees can now move on to something new. How exciting!

Look, life without backup software is just so much more interesting.

By the way, did I tell you how much I enjoy playing Russian Roulette?

Did I neglect to mention my brief stay (it was really was only a few days) at the mental hospital? Ahh, that's ancient history. Let's get back to the present.

BACKUP SOFTWARE- THE PRESENT DAY

Want to hear something silly? My friend Ben down in New Orleans owned an insurance company. It made a very good living for him and his family. He didn't believe in backup software either. All his computers were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Ben just laughed and said, "No problem, this disaster gives me the chance to write the Great American Novel that I've always dreamed of writing".

What about his 10 employees and his thousands of customers he was asked? Ben said, "Heck, things always work out for the best don't they?"

What about the income from the business that supported his family he was asked? Ben said, "Oh, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) told me they would take care of us and not to worry."

See, Ben is all set and is none the worse for wear even though he didn't have backup software.

BACKUP SOFTWARE LESSONS

So boys and girls what have we learned about this backup software thing?

* If we don't have backup software, so what, it just makes life after a hard drive crash more interesting and fun.

* After a natural disaster that destroys your computers, FEMA will make it OK.

* All the hubbub about backup software is just a bunch of advertising hype to sell product.

* Just because you like to play Russian Roulette, you aren't really crazy.

FINALLY- BACKUP SOFTWARE FOLLYIES

I know another guy, Carl Jordan, who is crazier than I am. Carl and the rest of the loonies at Tweak All Consultants (www.tweakspeed.com) actually believe backup software can save your bacon.

In my own strange way I try to be fair and balanced. Therefore

if you disagree with me check out Carl's review of backup software at Backup Software

Now, where's my medication? My meds really smooth me out. They also help me forget about rational things like computer backup and backup software.

Jack Back has been in the computer business since 1983 as an IT executive and working computer consultant company owner. He has helped many clients after a computer crash who had no computer backup. Hurry to get your FREE REVIEW of backup software that saves your irreplaceable computer data from loss, damage or destruction at the Backup Software website.

Planning A Backup And Restoration Of Files For Disaster Recovery

The Backup utility creates a copy of data on a hard disk of a computer and archives data on another storage media. Any storage media such as removable disks, tapes, and logical drives can be used as a backup storage.

While taking a backup of files, the Backup utility creates a volume shadow copy of the data to create an accurate copy of the contents. It includes any open files or files that are being used by the system. Users can continue to access the system while the Backup utility is running without the risk of losing data.

Volume Shadow Copy

Backup provides a feature of taking a backup of files that are opened by a user or system. This feature is known as volume shadow copy. Volume shadow copy makes a duplicate copy of all files at the start of the backup process. In this way, files that have changed during the backup process are copied correctly. Due to this feature, applications can continue writing data to the volume during a backup operation, and backups can be scheduled at any time without locking out users.

Types of Backups

The Windows Backup utility provides various types of backups. While planning for a backup strategy, it is important to choose an appropriate type or combination of different types of backups. The backup type determines which files are transferred to the destination media.

Each backup type relates to an attribute maintained by every file known as archive (A). The archive attribute is set when a file is created or changed. When an archive attribute is set, it means that the backup of this file has not been taken or it is due.

Note: When it is said that "The file is marked as backup", it means that the archive attribute of the file has been cleared.

Normal Backups

When an administrator chooses to use a normal backup, all selected files and folders are backed up and the archive attribute of all files are cleared. A normal backup does not use the archive attribute to determine which files to back up. A normal backup is used as the first step of any backup plan. It is used with the combination of other backup types for planning a backup strategy of an organization. Normal backups are the most time-consuming and are resource hungry. Restoration from a normal backup is more efficient than other types of backups.

Incremental Backups

An incremental backup backs up files that are created or changed since the last normal or incremental backup. It takes the backup of files of which the archive attribute is set. After taking a backup, it clears the archive attribute of files. An incremental backup is the fastest backup process. Restoring data from an incremental backup requires the last normal backup and all subsequent incremental backups. Incremental backups must be restored in the same order as they were created.

Note: If any media in the incremental backup set is damaged or data becomes corrupt, the data backed up after corruption cannot be restored.

Differential Backups

Differential backup backs up files that are created or changed since the last normal backup. It does not clear the archive attribute of files after taking a backup. The restoration of files from a differential backup is more efficient than an incremental backup.

Copy Backups

A copy backup copies all selected files and folders. It neither uses nor clears the archive attribute of the files. It is generally not a part of a planned scheduled backup.

Daily Backups

A daily backup backs up all selected files and folders that have changed during the day. It backs up data by using the modified date of the files. It neither uses nor clears the archive attribute of the files.

Combining backup types

The easiest backup plan is to take a normal backup every night. A normal backup every night ensures that the data is restored from a single job the next day. Although the restoration of data from a normal backup is easy, taking a backup is time consuming. Hence, an administrator is required to make an optimal backup plan. An administrator must consider the following points before creating a backup plan:

·The time involved in taking the backup.

·The size of the backup job.

·The time required to restore a system in the event of a system failure.

The most common solutions for the needs of different organizations include the combination of normal, differential, and incremental backups.

Combination of Normal and Differential Backups

An administrator can use a combination of a normal backup and a differential backup to save time in taking a backup as well as for a restoration of data. In this plan, a normal backup can be taken on Sunday, and differential backups can be taken on Monday through Friday every night. If data becomes corrupt at any time, only a normal and last differential backup are required to be restored. Although this combination is easier and takes lesser time for restoration, it takes more time to take backup if data changes frequently.

Combination of Normal and Incremental Backups

A combination of normal and incremental backups can be used to save more time for taking backups. In this plan, a normal backup is taken on Sunday and incremental backups on Monday through Friday every night. If data becomes corrupt at any time, a normal and all incremental backups till date are required to be restored.

Backing up a System State Data

System State Data

System State data contains critical elements of the Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. Following are the files included in the System State data:

·Boot files, including the system files and all files protected by Windows File Protection (WFP)

·Active Directory (on domain controller only)

·SYSVOL (on domain controller only)

·Certificate Services (on certification authority only)

·Cluster database (on cluster node only)

·Registry

·IIS metabase

·Performance counter configuration information

·Component Services Class registration database

For backing up the System State of a computer, the System State node is included as a part of the backup selection in the Backup utility.

Note: On domain controllers, System State can be restored only by restarting the domain controller in Directory Services Restore Mode. NTDSUTIL is used to recover deleted objects in Active Directory.

System Recovery

In the event of a system failure, the recovery of the system is difficult and tedious for administrators. Recovery involves reinstallation of the operating system, mounting and cataloging the backup tape, and then performing the full restore. To make this process easier, Windows provides a feature called Automated System Recovery (ASR). ASR is used to perform a restore of the System State data and services in the event of a major system failure. An ASR restore includes the configuration information for devices. ASR backs up the system data and local system partition.

How to create an ASR set?

Take the following steps to create an Automated System Recovery (ASR) set by using the Backup or Restore Wizard:

1.Run Backup from Start Menu > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup.

2.In the welcome screen of the Backup or Restore Wizard, click the Advanced Mode link.

3.On the welcome page of the Advanced Mode of the Backup utility, choose the ASR Wizard option from the Tools menu.

4.In the welcome screen of the ASR Wizard, click the Next button.

5.On the Backup Destination page, specify the location of the backup, and click the Next button.

6.Click the Finish button.

Note: An ASR backup does not include folders and files.

Best practices for Backup

According to Microsoft, administrators should take the following steps to ensure the recovery in case of a system failure:

·Develop backup and restore strategies and test them.

·Train appropriate personnel.

·In a high-security network, ensure that only administrators are able to restore files.

·Back up all data on the system and boot volumes and the System State.

·Back up the data on all volumes and the System State data at the same time.

·Create an Automated System Recovery backup set.

·Create a backup log.

·Keep at least three copies of the media. Keep at least one copy off-site in a properly controlled environment.

·Perform trial restorations.

·Secure devices and media.

·Do not disable the default volume shadow copy backup method and revert to the pre-Windows Server 2003 backup method.

·Back up your server cluster effectively.

·Back up the cluster disks from each node.

uCertify was formed in 1996 with an aim to offer high quality educational training software and services in the field of information technology to its customers. uCertify provides exam preparation solutions for the certification exams of Microsoft, CIW, CompTIA, Oracle, Sun and other leading IT vendors. To know more about uCertify, please visit http://www.ucertify.com/

Recovering Your PC From Disaster With Vista Backup

A pre-requisite to using this feature of Vista is buying the license for either Vista Business or Ultimate editions. Unfortunately Microsoft have not made it available in other versions of Vista. There are two types of backup you can use, and they affect how you restore the system:

1. Using the 'Backup Computer' it's possible to write what's called an image backup of your entire PC to a backup device usually a USB stick or external drive. This snapshot of your entire system allows you to recover exactly to the same point in time. However, because it is an 'image' of your system drive it requires the restoring PC to have a system drive of at least the same capacity. Usually it would be the same PC so this is not a problem. It is also the lengthier of the two backup options as it backs up the whole machine.

2. Using 'Backup Files' you can backup selected data files such as images, photos, music, documents, spreadsheets, emails and application data. This type of backup is incremental i.e. it only backs up changed files and therefore is usually very fast taking only a few minutes. However it will not enable you to restore a full system, only those backed up files.

Typically we advise you use both types of backup and blend them to cover all your data and system. So for example you might take a complete backup weekly, but a file backup daily. In the event of a disaster you would need to restore the system backup first, and then each daily backup (since its incremental) that contains changes that will not be on the full system backup.

The service has a scheduling function within it so that regular file or full image backups can be taken on a regular basis be that daily, weekly or monthly, whatever suits your needs. With the speed of modern drives the backup of your entire PC can be done within an hour and in the event of a disaster be recovered in a similar amount of time.

There are many options for backup devices but with the steadily decreasing cost of external hard drives and USB memory sticks these are looking like the consumer and very small business users backup device of choice. You need a minimum of 80GB of space to backup up your entire system and that's what I'd recommend you do. An external hard drive would normally be connected to your PC via a free USB2 socket, however in some instances you may also have eSATA, Ethernet or Firewire (IEEE1394) connections available as alternatives. The fastest connections to use for backup in reverse order are USB2, Firewire and eSATA.

Should your machine stop working for either software or hardware related reasons the Image backup allows you to return it to its last working state to and be confident that everything should work perfectly as it did previously. What this means is that should anything go wrong with your current installation like a faulty hard drive, corrupt windows file or Virus problems, all that is needed to be done is to enter the Windows Vista Ultimate or Business disc, plug in the backup device and start the PC. Once you have done so, follow the steps below to fully restore your PC to the exact state as it was at the last backup.

Keeping your back-up image up to date means you don't have to worry about any problems caused by software errors, virus infections, hardware failures or corruption. Similarly, should your system hard disk fail entirely, all that would need to be done would be to get a replacement, install it and then follow the process of a system restore and you would have your operating system and software back as it was before.

Please note system restore points described in Windows are a different tool. They save operating system files as a snapshot at a given time in another directory (usually hidden) on your system disk so that without referring to a backup you can reverse a hot fix, service pack or driver update should it prove to cause instability or bugs. This is obviously no use to you is the system disk fails or becomes corrupted.

Doesn't RAID protect me from drive failures though?

Ideally if you have also selected our RAID1 or RAID5 disk storage configuration you can afford to lose one hard drive and simply 'hot swap' it out for a replacement without any interruption to the working system as it is able to rebuild the information that was on the missing drive on the fly, until you are able to replace the defective drive. Once the defective drive is replaced the RAID5 redundant volume set is rebuilt on the new drive and you have fault tolerance restored once again.

Remember your backup images don't care whether it's a RAID drive they are being backed up from or restored to so you can back up a RAID set and restore to non-RAID or vice versa.

How to restore Vista from a backup

Assuming you have your backups now to recover from your backup device (USB or External hard drive), and your machine is now back up and running (or you are using a similar replacement machine) and you have the same capacity hard drive space available it's very simple. Just go through the following steps:

1. Insert your Windows operating system DVD into the drive

2. Reboot your machine (or power on)

3. If you are asked whether to 'Press A Key' to boot from CD-ROM, then do so. The standard windows installation process will now begin with a progress bar along the bottom of your screen. Select your preferred language when prompted (i.e. 'UK English') and click 'Next'.

4. Once the Windows setup DVD has started select the Repair option from the first screen. You will see the 'Repair your computer' option on the bottom left. Click on it and click 'Select'.

On The following screen click 'Next' and you will get to a screen with an option o perform a 'Complete PC restore'

5. Then select the option to 'Windows Complete Restore' to restore from your latest backup (ensure your backup device is already connected and switched on)

6. Windows will now look for backups on your device and allow you to restore your system from it, this will take a few minutes depending on how big your system disk was in terms of volume of data that has been backed up

7. Now remove the Windows setup DVD, and reboot your PC again

8. Your system will now be restored to the state of your last Full image backup

9. You can now go into Control Panel, System Maintenance, Backup and Restore, and select to restore any documents, images, music, email or data files that are backed up individually but were not in the last Full image backup

Please note running through this process WILL DESTROY any existing data on the disks as it completely overwrites it with your backup image including any new files that might be on the disk so you need to be sure you do want to restore from the backup.

Typically a full backup image will take up at least 10GB of space, and your restore will create a new volume of exactly the same size as your original volume so you must ensure that you are restoring to a volume at least as big as your backup volume was.

Backup and Disaster Recovery FAQ

What do I need to do to ensure backups are run?

Just make sure you machine is on at the time set for backups to run, the backup device is connected and switched on. We also recommend you make sure all applications are closed and its advisable to have nothing running while backups are being taken.

Manually running backups

If you would like to run a one off backup because you are about to change your system configuration or add hardware or software and you want to be sure the system is safe this is a prudent practice and is easy to do. Go to the 'Start' bar (which has now been replaced with a Windows icon in the case of Vista) and Click on Control Panel, followed by System Maintenance and then Backup and Restore Centre. Select 'Backup computer' to make a full image backup of the entire machine and its configuration, or select 'Backup files' to make incremental backups of changed data files (the latter being much quicker and requiring far less backup space).

Bear in mind that you need to rename your backup image file names manually so you can identify which one is which when it comes to having to restore them, otherwise each successive backup will simply overwrite the last and you cant recover to a given point in time. To change their folder names simply use file explorer as you would on any other windows file system device.

All backups are stored in a folder on the backup device named 'Windows image backup'. The default name for the folder will be the PC's computer name. Here, simply right click the folder with the new backup you have made (the new one will be identifiable by the date) and select 'rename'. If you then need to restore to any given point you will be given a choice of folder names identifying all your backups you can restore from.

Do I need to backup anything else?

I recommend you also periodically (say once a month or quarter) backup your full system with a complete image backup. This is the only way to ensure the whole system in its complete working state is backed up and can be restored to. If you don't mind the wait for it to finish its better to run a Full backup as often as possible, but it can take some time (several hours).

Can I restore my system even if its still working?

Yes! If you want to revert to a previous working state of your system at the time of an earlier backup then even though your system is working you can go through the same procedure above to restore it to that earlier point. This is sometimes useful if a software or driver installation or a virus has infected your machine and you would like to safely revert to an earlier known working and secure state.

If the Windows DVD/CD wont boot on my machine what should I do?

Most likely your CD/DVD drive isn't set as the first priority boot device so the PC is scanning the disks and trying to boot from them first and failing. You need to check your boot priority setup in the machines BIOS setup. You can usually enter the BIOS by pressing [Del] at start-up (PC start-up, not Windows start-up, if windows is starting up its too late), usually there is a screen to accompany this to tell you when to press [Del] or another prescribed key). Your BIOS will usually give you three or more options for priority order of boot devices for installing windows or recovering from a backup this needs to be set as [CD-ROM] or [USB] first, it doesn't matter what follows it in second priority but ideally it should be your system disk to minimise boot-up time. This is exactly the same process as if you were about to fresh install Windows onto the machine

Protecting backup media

Don't forget your backup is only as good as the medium it's on. In business its good practice to dummy run a restore of your system every now and again to make sure the process and the media are working properly. If you have the time id recommend you do the same. Its also advisable to protect the media especially if all your backups are on a single external drive or USB device. Consider storing the device in a fire safe in between backups to ensure it doesn't get destroyed in the event of a building fire, flood or collapse. To be doubly sure buy two backup devices and rotate them on and off site (at a friends house or different business location) that way if an aeroplane hits your house (hopefully while you are out!) your friend still has one of your backups for you...

Alan is Chief Technologist at Cryo Performance Computers in the UK. He leads the research and development of innovative PC design for games and demanding professional communities. Cryo PC supply high performance specialist PC's including professional custom built PC's and extreme gaming PC's.

GFI Backup 2009 For Database Backup and Recovery

Database backup and recovery is a very important direction in today's computer dominion. The steady increase in storage media flaws and increase in information use calls for research and development of advanced database backup and recovery methods. Advanced database backup software gives a wide range of supported databases such as DB2 backup, PostgreSQL Backup, Oracle Backup, MySQL Backup and FoxPro backup among others. Database backup software offers numerous useful features for a database backup schedule. All people in needs of personal and business data security need excellent backup software solutions to protect their data.

Disasters are investable and this raises the need for disaster recovery techniques. The disaster recovery process enables one to restore system components after a disaster. Depending on the software used and how the backup process was done, the recovery process can be a great deal of work or very simple. Anyone that does reasonable computing amounts will some day be in need of program or data backups. The GFI Backup 2009 Home Edition presents an excellent and easy to use backup software for all your database backup and recovery needs.

GFI Backup 2009 offers you a backup solution for your program settings, photos, documents, emails and music. With the use of a smart and simple interface that is wizard-driven to a wide range of storage devices, the GFI backup 2009 Home edition software has plenty to offer. The great news about this backup software is its easy availability. In addition, it is downloadable, free and user friendly. Other unique features making the software stand out from the crowd include the ability to secure all important files for free. By the use of the ZIP format that is widely used, data can be restored within minutes. For all novice users, this backup software offers a wizard-driven interface which is very simple to use. In a nutshell, the software is full-featured, efficient and fast offering a perfect backup solution.

GFI Backup 2009 Home Edition also offers differential and incremental backups and can synchronize folders and files. Its settings for backup support a wide range of applications while this backup software offers many options for backup storage. Other additional features making the software very unique include its built-in task scheduler that is simple to use. The software also brags of predefined searching filters and 256-bit encryption that is one of the best encryption methods. You can backup the entire windows registry using this software which also offers you an in-depth log for each backup operation.

Be it a corporate environment or personal computer, the GFI Backup Home Edition presents a free backup software solution for all. Apart from being able to secure all your data, this backup tool also offers a registry backup and is capable of restoring most of the configurations for applications in case of a disaster. One advantage of this backup tool is that users can easily restore configuration settings in case they are destroyed. This backup software also preserves the structures of folders from their source. This software is best for corporate environments as it allows backing up of data to an FTP server or network share. The software is also a perfect backup strategy as copies of stack backup can be kept and new file versions can replace the old that have been backed up by use of the differential or incremental backup techniques. With this backup software, you can run backup schedules whenever the computer shuts down or starts. Another unique quality of this software is its ability to reschedule any missed tasks and run a back up even when the machine is off at a scheduled time. Try out this fully-featured backup software solution and unravel the benefits it has to offer you.

For resource: GFI Backup 2009

There are many backup software solutions available. GFI Backup offers the most common and the most useful options but best of all it's free. Chout more info about GFI Backup and download you free copy now.

Windows 7 New Backup Features

Windows 7 Backup and Restore

With Windows 7, Microsoft expands on the reliable backup and restore solutions for both data files and the entire computer that it introduced in Windows Vista, which can be used to copy your important files and folders to a safe location or create a system image that can be used later to restore a unreliable PC.

File Backup If you think of your Documents library as the centre of your data universe, and keep a series of folders and files there and in other libraries, then you'll understand the importance of backing up these files on a regular basis. Windows 7 supports both automatic and manual data backup, enabling you to choose which files to back up and when. You can then restore your backups at any time to recover previous versions of documents, or to replace a file you may have accidentally deleted.

System Image There's nothing worse than discovering that you need to reinstall Windows for some reason. You also have to ensure that you have drivers for all your hardware, reinstall the applications you use regularly, reload your data, and reconfigure all of the system, so that it's exactly the way you used to have it. Rather than go through this pain, you can use a Windows 7 feature called System Image Backup to create what is called a system image. This image, which is essentially a huge file, contains the entire contents of your PC as it existed when you backed up an image. You can simply restore the system image and get right back to work.

Window 7 also offers a way to access previous versions of data files or a previous state in time, or called a System Restore. These features are not part of Backup and Restore, but when you add it all up, what you have is the makings of a full-featured data recovery software suite like Ghost used for many years with Windows XP.

Backup Capabilities in Various Windows 7 Editions

All Windows 7 product editions get Backup and Restore with system image backup capabilities; the only exception is network-based backups: Only Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate support that capability.

One Tool to Rule Them All: Using Backup and Restore

Although various tools are available through the Windows 7 user interface. A single menu control panel menu option in System & Security, the Back UP & Restore menu option provides a front end.

Backing Up Documents, Pictures, and Other Data

If you want to create a data backup, you can use Windows Backup, which is available from Backup and Restore. To do so, launch Backup and Restore and click the Set up backup link. This launches Windows Backup's Setup up backup wizard

In the first step of the wizard, you must choose a location to store the backup. You can save a backup to an internal or external hard disk, a writeable CD or DVD, or a network share. (Network backup is only available in Windows 7 Ultimate, Enterprise & Professional. The amount of space you need, of course, depends on the amount of data you are backing up. Windows auto selects the local storage offering the most free space, but you can change this of course.

Microsoft does not allow you to back up to the disk or partition you are backing up, you cannot go from C: / to C: /

In the second step, you have two choices: Let Windows choose or Let me choose. If you choose the first option, Windows Backup will automatically backup data files saved in libraries, on the desktop, and in any folders founder in your user folder. Windows Backup will also create a system image if you choose this option, and then automatically make periodic backups on a schedule going forward.

If you choose Let me choose, Windows Backup will present a view of your file system. From this option, you can pick exactly what you want to backup. You can also optionally cause a system image to be made.

In the next step, review what you've chosen. Click the Change schedule link to change the default, which is to make a backup every Sunday night.

Click Save settings and run, as the backup begins, Backup and Restore displays its progress.

If you set up an automatic backup, Windows 7 will monitor your PC usage and prompt you to perform full backups over time.

A backup is in progress. This message will occur in the future; when Windows Backup runs in the background you can create multiple automatic backup schedules if you want. For example, you may want to back up different drives or file types at different times.

Managing Backups

Once you have created your first backup. First, Backup and Restore indicates that you've set a backup location and indicates when the last and next backups occur. You can also change the automatic backup settings and restore all of the files for the each user account.

When you click the Manage space, the Manage Windows Backup disk space window will indicate, information about the selected backup device, you can browse the file system of the backup location, view backups stored on that PC, and change settings configured with system image backups.

If you do click View backups, you can't actually get inside the backup folder you have made. From here, you can view the backups and delete them.

Go back to the previous window and click Browse. This will open Windows Explorer view, navigating the location of your backup. At this location, you will see Windows Backup icon and the name of your PC. If you try to double click this folder, a Windows Backup window will appear. Instead, right-click the folder and choose Open. Then, click Continue in the permission folder that appears. You'll will see a folder structure representing your various backups. A number of standard ZIP files. If you accidentally lose everything, at least these files will always be accessible.

Restoring Files& Folders

Backup and Restore can also be used to restore files you have previously backed up. There are 3 file restore methods.

Restore my files. Restore your own files and folders.

Restore all users' files. Restore your own files and folders as well as those of other users.

Select another backup to restore files from. Perform more advanced restoration tasks, such as restoring files from a different PC.

You can follow these steps to trigger a restore of your own files or folders:

1. Open Backup and Restore and click the Restore my files button.

2. The Restore Files window appears.

From here, you have three options:

You can Search. If you know exactly what you're looking for, and only need one or a handful of files, you can use the Search button to Search your existing backup sets.

You can browse for files. If you'd like to manually browse around the backup set to find a file or any number of individual files, click Browse for files. You'll be presented with a modified File Open dialog, from which you can browse the various backups you've created, diving into the full backup or just the files in your user profile.

Recover entire folder

Whichever method you choose, you can mark a folder for restoration as you go and then continue looking for more.

3. When you're ready to go, click the Next button in the Restore Files window. Windows Backup will ask you to decide where you want to restore the files to; either to their original locations or to a new location.

Choose one and then click Restore. Windows Backup will begin restoring your files. If there any of the backup files will overwrite an existing file, you'll see the normal File Copy window shown below, which offers you a chance to overwrite, copy but keep both files, or don't copy.

When the restore is complete, Windows Backup will let you know that the files have been restored and list them.

Windows 7 System Image Backup

Backing up and restoring data files is important and should be on a regular basis, recently a new type of backup utility that backs up entire PC systems using system images has become quite available. These types of backups protect against a hard drive failure, virus infection or a major crash: If your you can use this system image to restore the PC to its previous state.

System imaging isn't new; companies have been using it for years such as Norton Ghost., Microsoft has created its own version, which it includes with Windows 7.

System imaging utilities typically compress the data on your hard drives to create a small image. Various solutions use different compression types, but you may be interested to know that Windows 7 uses VHD format that Microsoft also uses in its Windows Virtual PC software and its server-based Hyper-V virtualization solutions.

System images contain complete PC operating system files and user files & folders. You can't restore only parts of a system image, as you can with data backups. When you restore a system image, it restores the entire PC and overwrites any existing operating system. That means you should be careful before restoring a system image: Any data you have on the disk will be lost. Of course, remember to use automatic backups.

To create a system image, launch Backup and Restore menu and click the Create a system image on the left side bar at the top corner. This launches the Create a system image, shown below, which directs you through the steps to back up your whole PC. You can save system images to hard disks or DVDs, as well as network locations only in Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate only. You can only write a system image to a hard disk that is formatted with the NTFS file system.

Click Next. The wizard will give you a chance to confirm the backup settings and remind you which partitions are being imaged. It will also provide an estimate of the amount of space needed to create a system image. The required storage space varies according to the size and usage of the hard disk on your PC. Click Start backup to begin the system image process.

Two file system locations must be included in the system image-what Microsoft refers to as the boot partition and the system partition. The boot partition is always C:\, whereas the system partition is the drive with the Windows 7 Windows directory. This is typically C: but if you installed Windows 7 in a dual-boot setup with a previous Windows version, the system partition might be in a different location. If you have other drives or partitions, you can optionally choose to include them in the system image as well. As the image is created, Windows Backup will provide an ongoing progress indicator.

This process could take some time, especially on a heavily used PC. When it's done, Windows Backup will prompt you to create a system repair disc. You should do so: While Windows 7 does install recovery files directly into the boot partition, in some cases; these files will not boot the PC. If that happens, you can use the system repair disc to boot your PC, a requirement for restoring the entire PC with the system image (as we'll see in the next section you can use any writeable DVD for a system repair disc.

If you have both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 on different PCs, you cannot use the same system repair disc for each. Instead, you must create separate system repair discs for 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

Restoring the Entire PC

If a major hardware or software failure has made your computer unusable, and you simply want to return to a system backup, you can use one of the system images you've previously created. Note, however, that you will typically need to boot your PC into the Windows Recovery to make this happen, using the boot repair disc that you created earlier. Note, too, that restoring your PC in this fashion will wipe your system and format your C drive partition.So this should not a last resort.

Follow these steps to restore your entire PC using a system image:

1. Reboot the computer.

2. If you are using a system repair disc, boot the PC with that. Otherwise, after your PC has finished its BIOS sequence, hold down the F8 key. Choose Repair Your Computer from the Advanced Boot Options screen (below) and tap Enter.

3. After the loading files screen, choose the correct language and keyboard input method and then click next.

4. If you booted from the hard drive, you will need to choose System Image Recovery from the System Recovery Options window that appears. Otherwise, System Recovery will examine the hard drives attached to your PC and look for Windows installs. When it's done, it will list the install(s) it found and give you the opportunity to use Windows 7's built-in recovery tools to fix problems with Windows or you can restore your PC to an earlier time using a system image. Choose that latter option and

Click Next.

5. The Re-imege your computer menu begins. In the 1st phase of this system, you choose the latest image available by default or you can select a different system image.

Click Next.

6. In the next step, you can choose to format the PC's hard drive or C: / generally.

Click Next to continue.

7. In the final phase of the menu, you can certify what you're doing and click

Finish continuing.

This can take some time depending on how large you backup is.

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Creating a Backup Plan

Your company's data may be its most important asset. Imagine a large corporation with millions of dollars of account receivable and account payable data stored on their network. A fire causes massive data loss. How much work would be required to re-create the lost data? Without backups, the company may not survive the disaster.

Choosing a backup media is important, but in this article I'll focus on creating a plan for the type and frequency of backups. Let's assume you will use some type of tape backup media.

If your company has only a small amount of data, you may be able to perform a full backup every night. You would need two tapes which you would alternate in case the most recent full backup turns out defective. At least you have a previous one to go back to. You would store the tapes in a secure off-site location to avoid being destroyed in the same disaster that might destroy the original data.

When you perform a full backup, each file that gets baked up has the "archive" attribute in its file properties set to zero.

The archive attribute is a flag stored for each file that has been created or modified. It indicates that the file needs to be archived. Backup programs can reduce the size of backups by saving only files which have been modified since the previous backup. When the file is saved in a full or incremental backup, the archive bit is set to one.

In Windows, you can view the archive attribute for any file by right-clicking the file in Windows Explorer and selecting "Properties" in the popup menu. In the "Properties" dialog box, click on the "Advanced..." button.

If your company has a large amount of data, it would be too time consuming to perform a full backup every night. Instead, you would perform a full backup only on Friday nights, and perform a "differential" backup on other weekday night. This backup plan would require six tapes.

- A differential backup saves all files that have been created or modified since the last FULL backup.

- Restoring with differential backups is easy. You need just use two tapes. First restore the last full backup. Then restore the last differential backup.

A differential backup doesn't reset the archive attribute. The next time you perform a differential backup, it will again save all the files that have changed since the last full backup. So each night, the differential backup will get progressively larger until the next you perfrom a full backup.

If your company has a great amount of data that changes every day, it would be too time consuming to perform a differential backup every night. Instead, you might perform a full backup on Friday nights, and an "incremental" backup on other weekday night.

- An incremental backup saves only the files that have changed since the last full or incremental backup.

An incremental backup checks the archive attribute to determine if the file has changed and needs to be backed up. Then it resets the archive attribute. An incremental backup stays small because it includes only files that have changed since the last full or incremental backup.

- Restoring with incremental backups is more time consuming. First, restore the last full backup. Then restore all the incremental backups made since the full backup, in the order they were made. The only reason to use an incremental backup scheme is if differential backups become too large, requiring more than one tape.

Many company networks continue to opperate on Saturday and even Sunday. In this case, you would need to add the required additional tapes to the plan.

If during the day your company creates a large volume of data, or a small amount of data that is too critical to wait for the standard night time backup, you can perform a copy backup. To do this, you just copy the selected files to a backup media.

Copyright(C) 2004 Bucaro TecHelp.

Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.

Stephen Bucaro

To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp.