March 5, 2008

Ranting on Backup, Part II

Filed under: Main — admin @ 12:01 am

In my last entry, I bemoaned the fact that few people using a computer bother with making a safety copy of their stuff. Indeed, the term safety copy would probably be far more effective than the dreadful, avoidable, and hated word backup.

As mankind waddles into the digital desert, people have to understand that fleeting electrons and magnetic impulses lack the permanent nature of information stored on paper, etched in metal, or carved into stone. No doubt your computer has in its technological bosom digital pictures, music, videos, and other creative efforts you’ve put your heart into. ’tis a shame to think that you place little effort into ensuring the longevity of that information, especially when there are three easy and effortless ways to backup your stuff.

Time Machine. Apple’s solution for the Macintosh is a pretty face on an old Unix program (rsync). Introduced with Mac OS X Leopard, the backup solution is called Time Machine. What it does it to automatically back up your Mac’s data 48 times a day. Anything new you create or stuff you change is copied over to an external hard drive. Then Time Machine manages the backups for as long as it can (until the external hard drive fills up).

Windows Complete PC Backup. The Microsoft solution for backing up is an automatic program called Windows Complete PC Backup. Sadly it comes with only the more expensive versions of Windows Vista (Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate). The backups take place automatically on a schedule and a complete system backup is done every so often. The preferred backup device is a nice, roomy external hard drive. As one would expect, the interface is clunky and primitive when compared with the Mac.

JumpValut. A strong third party solution worth looking into is the JumpVault. It’s a USB flash drive, aka jump drive, you plug into your PC or laptop. The flash drive contains the backup software, which runs instantly. Files are backed up right onto the USB drive. So when you’re done, you just un-mount the drive and you take your backups with you. This has the advantage of letting you restore the files easily to any computer.

Each of these options represents a logical and simple solution to the necessary job of backing up your computer’s valuable data. And each solution is simply a more elegant version of that same old backup program everyone avoids. But when you really care for your stuff, you need a backup program. Having one that does backup automatically is a blessing. And given the low cost of external hard drives, there’s little reason to avoid useful tools like Time Machine and Windows Complete PC Backup.

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