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Its amusing how pc users the world over are mortified of losing
data by a virus attack but don't care much about backing up
files. Though the intention is the same - to save data, people
are concerned more about virus attacks rather than having back
up program.
Saving files in a separate floppy, CD or even a different pc is
known as back up of files. In the event of a data loss, it can
be recovered if its saved elsewhere. What and how much to back
up is completely an individual choice. Normally, data of
importance like financial records, tax statements, personal
files and anything that is important to a person should have a
back up. The Back up worthiness of a file is the value of the
file itself. Back up takes, so little time yet saves precious
money, time and energy.
A simple back up solution for your files is - attach all your
files to your email box. If your pc loses data due to whatever
reason, you can still access all your files from any other pc
that has an Internet connection. Simple, all it requires is your
willingness. The next methods are to save your data in to a
floppy or a CD. However, these act only as short-term data
stores as they are not immune to getting blighted. Storing even
an average file would require lots of floppies. Therefore, the
best long term back up option is to store data in zip drive or
tape drive. This then mandates checking of the tape at least
periodically for quality that might deteriorate with the passage
of time.
Windows utilities offer a back up facility. While installing
Windows XP, Ntbackup.msi, a back up program of Windows utility,
can be installed too. Unfortunately, Windows back up utility
does not involve a third party and is done within the pc. So if
data stored in a drive is lost, Windows back up fetches it back
from another drive where its stored as back up. This saving
exercise has to be performed religiously every week or so. Still
Windows back up utility is not a safe back up option.
To solve this problem there are software utilities that cover
back up automatically. Software utilities offer back up programs
that back up files the moment they are saved in the pc. The back
ups provided by software utilities are good for even complete
hard drive failure. Disaster recovery and back up of open files
are the features of some Software back up utilities.
About the author:
Natalie Aranda writes about, e-business, Internet and
computers.
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