A week ago I got a string of messages from my XP workhorse computer indicating it was unable to write to the disc. When I powered the unit back on, the system was quite obviously ill. I turned it off and pulled the hard disc drive from the unit and put it on the shelf. Now would be a good time to test my backup strategy.I have a layered approach to backups.<\/p>\n
First, I do not backup any programs I have on discs. This includes the operating system (XP), Office, Nero, and other programs I purchased on physical media.<\/p>\n
Programs I purchase online, I either burn to a disc or I copy the install file(s) to a folder on my file server called “Install Sources”. Keys to these programs are written on the disc and\/or added to a license key file stored on my file server.<\/p>\n
Free programs that I download (Audacity, Python, Perl, …) that I expect to be around for the long haul, I simply download from the web and trust that I will be able to get a version again in the future.<\/p>\n
So the only thing left to backup is data. The bulk of my data is stored on my file server. This includes close to 500 gig of pictures (my son in a photographer). But some data is stored locally. This data is either data that is transient in nature (like browser caches), data that has a high access rate and would be slowed by web access, or ill behaved applications that simply can’t be make to store data on a network drive.<\/p>\n
For this data, I have a small external USB drive that I bad all changed data to every night. I use an external backup drive because of a failure I had a year ago when my power supply failed. It shot high voltage throughout my computer and fired everything including my primary and backup drive. With an external drive, the chances of a wonky power supply taking out my backup drive is greatly diminished.<\/p>\n
I use a program called Handy Backup to do the nightly backup. It is a simple and cheap program that can target specific files or directories or trees of directories to backup. It has a built in scheduler and will backup to network or local media. Once a week, I use Handy Backup to copy the data not only to the local backup drive but to the file server since it is equiped with an automated DVD burner.<\/p>\n
So when my computer crashed, it was a matter of buying a new disc, formating it, and installing the operating system and its patches. That consumed the first day. The next two days was installing all the applications. I keep a composition notebook for each computer I own and add a note for each program I install or remove. That allows me to rebuild and get back a machine without forgetting all the applications I had on it.<\/p>\n
Once the programs were installed, it was a simple matter to reverse the Handy Backup tasks to restore the data back to the correct locations.<\/p>\n
One hint I learned. For XP when rebuilding the OS, use the exact same account names. If not, the “My Documents” area will be in a different location making restoring much more painfull.<\/p>\n
Also, I have not figure out how to restore the WAB (Windows Address Book) email address book and keep the catagorizations I added in Outlook. That was the one thing that I lost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A week ago I got a string of messages from my XP workhorse computer indicating it was unable to write to the disc. When I powered the unit back on, the system was quite obviously ill. I turned it off … Continue reading