Backup and Restore your Imortant Files!! They CANT Be Replaced!!!!

My New purpose in life is to help others with every day situations, through my failures, tribulations and successes! Learn from my mistakes, and gain from my solutions and successes!! If I help just one person, it was worth it. No matter how seemingly unimportant the topic.. If it helped you out, let me know..

For today's blog, it has to do with BACKUP and RESTORE of IMPORTANT FILES on your computer!

I struggled through this for several days, and thought I would create a blog in the hopes of saving others some valuable time.. I found some good info that helped me along, and thought I would pay back some of my time. Well, here goes..

Problem: Backing up my important files so that I can restore the important files in the following cases...

1. The same computer that I backed the files up from, in the event that I accidentally delete or change the file and want it back.
2. A hard drive crash on my computer, where I have to restore important files to a NEW computer (this one was of most importance to me, as I have had hardware failures in the past.
3. If my pc gets stolen, and need to restore my files..

THere are probably other reasons to backup files, but these were my main concerns.. Remember this. Only backup files that CANNOT be replaced EVER.. Such as family or vacation photos, or word or exel spreadsheets with tons of valuable information in them! Dont worry about software, because you can always reinstall, or even purchase new software. But you can NEVER restore important files..

First, be sure that you backup your files on a fairly regular basis. At the very least, manually, where once a month or so, you back the files up. Or, preferably, on an automatic schedule.. Here is what I would recommend..

1. NAS (Network Acessable Storage) - Purchase a 1TB or 2TB storage device that you can connect to your home or business network. Then, all of your computers can access the data stored onto these devices. You can backup AND restore data here.
2. External Physical Hard Drive - This is similare to the NAS device, except that you connect it to your computer via the USB port which makes it very simple and convenient. They are very inexpensive and can be purchased at BestBuy, Walmart, RadioShack and online at CircuitCity.com or Newegg.com and of course, my favorite online marketplace, Amazon.com. (same for the NAS device of course).
3. External USB Flash drive - this is usually smaller capacity, altough their capacities are growing more and more every month! There are no moving parts, and store files on a solid state device. They are very small (size of a pack of gum) and are very fast.
4. Online Backup Services - This is the least of my favorites, as it is alot slower in backing up and resoring large amounts of data, but is perfect for the casual user (I setup my daughters on this so that she wont loose her homework, and her MP3 files)... And better yet, she has access to these files from anywhere! One example is Norton Online Backup.. Also, I absolutely LOVE DropBox. They give you 2GB free, which isnt much, but you can upgrade for more. It acts just like your file system, and supports drag and drop. It integrates nicely into your PC file system, which makes it very convenient... Of course, you can use Amazon as well, as they will give you 5GB free as well..

So, here is what my issue was this weekend..

1. Microsoft Backup - I backed up 85GB of data using Microsoft Backup to my NAS device, which was nice... However, I also tried to backup two other PCs running Windows 7 Home Edition, which does NOT support Network Access Storage!! You have to have a physical device, or use an online service.
   
   Next, I performed a disaster recovery test (VERY IMPORTANT!!!). You want to test your backup / restore to ensure that it is working properly. You dont want to have a hard drive failure, only to find ou that your backups cant be restored!!! So, I tried to restore to the same computer, and it worked great!! But then I asked myself "what if my PC hard drive failed, or got stolen?" So I attempted to restore to a new PC, and although the restore worked fine, I could not read the files since they were backed up using the old accout authentication and permissions... So, that took a bit of time to change the files, and add my new permissions to the files and folders...
2. Microsoft Easy Transfer - this is actually pretty cool, and worked the best for my purposes. It gives you three choices... Direct cable between PCs (I dont have such a cable), via network assuming both PCs are on the same network, and finally, a storage device.. I selected option 3.. a storage device. So I connected a 250GB exernal Western Digtal storage device to my USB port and clicked NEXT... That was it!!!
   
   When I was done, I connected the USB drive to my NEW computer, and clicked on restore, and it copied the files perfectly. It then asked you about adding the NEW permissions from my account on my NEW pc, and it added that account to my files, so that I didnt have the permission issues from the backup restore.

Now that my files are safe, I will start to play with some other backup tools that provide more flexibility than the free Microsoft Backup tool. Go to Download.com and search for a tool called EaseUS ToDo.. It works great! and it also has alot of other features, such as creating an image of your entire hard drive, so that you can make clones of your computer if you had to (assuming the hardware is the same).. And if the hardware is NOT the same, it has an option that helps you with that as well. I am more concerned with a failure, and restoring my files AND my system if possible. EaseUS will allow you to do this. It has TONS of features and is FREE... And unline Microsoft backup, it allows any PC to store to a Network Access Storage device (NAS)... With Microsoft, those of you that have Windows 7 Home edition are out of luck!!

Please note: You can access an NAS device with Microsoft Windows Home edition, BUT you cannot use Microsoft backup to backup files there.

Well, I hope this will help you with your backup and restore and save you a weekend of research and trial and error. Again.. BACKUP YOUR IMPORTANT FILES.. Once they are gone, they are gone. This is especially true if you have a business. You can go out of business overnight because of an improperly created backup.

If you own a business, DONT take the word of your backup admistrator. Ask them "have you tested the restoration of my files?? Do the files work once restored? What is the disaster recovery plan?? My company almos went bankrupt because of this years ago...

Good luck everyone!!

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