John Adams made what can be a dull subject interesting at the August general meeting of DACS! Most of us know how important it is to backup the data on our computers, yet many of us fail to do this on a regular basis. Luckily for us, John agreed to come back and speak to us again on the important topic of backup and recovery. Some of you may remember John from his presentation in January on Wi-Fi security when we learned how to protect our wireless internet connections. This time John gave us a very thorough run-down of the options available for protecting our data, regardless of what platform is being used. John explained in detail how to backup the data on your computer using the Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. We also learned how to backup our photos and contacts on our cellphones and tablets.
John told us that backup and recovery are more than an idea or a process, they are really peace of mind. It’s not pleasant to think about how often hard drives (HDDs) fail but unfortunately this is a fact many of us have to deal with. John started off by outlining the three types of backups that can be done; a full backup, an incremental backup and a differential backup. John said that the first time you are backing up you should always do a full backup for safety reasons. A full backup includes your operating system, which makes it easier to recover in the event of a total HDD failure. After you’ve done a full backup, you can either do an incremental backup or a differential backup. An incremental backup will backup only the files that have changed since the previous backup. The differential backup will backup all the files that have changed since the first backup.
Another important decision you need to make is where to store all that data you have backed up. The first option is to use an external storage drive on-site, which is one of the most affordable solutions and it’s convenient if you need it. The risk you take with this option is in the event of a major disaster such as a flood or a fire, your backup could be lost as well. The second option is to use an off-site external storage drive, which isn’t quite as handy as the on-site option and could prove to be costly depending on the method you choose to secure it. The last option is to use one of the many 3rd party off-site services that are available.
If you are running Windows 7 or a later version, you can use the powerful backup and restore utility that is built right into the operating system. This program enables you to perform a full system recovery as well as restore individual files. You can also create a rescue disk that lets you boot the computer into recovery mode in case this is needed. John pointed out that Windows won’t let you backup to a flash drive and that you aren’t able to pick and choose specific files to backup. From Windows 8 on, the backup program works very similar to Apple’s Time Machine. The Windows backup is a basic backup and not quite as sophisticated as a 3rd party backup program like Norton Ghost, which compresses the files so they take up less space.
Next John transitioned to talking about the backup and recovery system for the Mac. He said that Time Machine is a very simple yet thorough backup program. One of the benefits of Time Machine is that you will be asked if you would like to use your external hard drive for backup as long as the minimum requirements are available. You also have the option to encrypt the information on your backup disk. Time Machine not only makes a copy of every file, but it also will remember how your system looked so you can return your Mac to how it was at any specific point in the past.
John told us that one of the amazing features of Ubuntu as well as several variants of this Linux version is that it comes with a built-in file and folder backup and recovery application as part of the GUI. John explained that there is a tool you can use to create a full backup, and it makes sense to take this step once you have the software setup the way you want. The disk utility allows you to easily backup or restore a full disk image. You can go into scheduling and tell Ubuntu how often to do the backup and how long you would like to keep your backups. You also have the option to create a password for your backup.
In case you were wondering about how to backup the valuable data stored on your cellphone or tablet, John covered this topic too. We learned that the operating system on most Android, iOS, Windows and Blackberry devices is permanently embedded in the unit so you only need to be concerned with data backup. All of these devices offer multiple methods to backup. Apple offers 5 gigabytes of cloud storage for the iPhone, iPad and iPod and you can also do a full backup through iTunes. John warned us that iCloud backups are not full backups and will only backup your camera roll, accounts, documents and settings. An iTunes backup is the best choice if you have a lot of large files or want networked backups.
Most Android devices have an SD card installed and allow you to backup your data to the card. You can also copy your contacts and your photos to the SD card. Google also offers cloud services to backup your data. If you decide to use a third party backup program for your Android device your settings will also be backed up.
Starting with Windows 7 there is an application you can download for free right from the Microsoft website which interfaces with your Windows phone and enables you to create a backup of your entire phone. If you have a Windows tablet it will work the same as a Windows computer and you can use the standard Windows computer backup. Last but not least, Blackberry devices give you either an embedded program or an app that will automatically do the backup depending on the version that handles the backup.
Once you have invested the small amount of time needed to implement a reliable backup plan, if the unthinkable does happen and your hard disk fails, you will have no reason to panic. You can relax since you’ve already done the hard part and you have that backup handy, right? If you are using a Windows computer simply boot the machine with the recovery disk and if necessary, you can restore the operating system along with any missing files. If you had to replace the hard drive in your Mac, you can use the Time Machine backup disk itself as a boot device, just hold down the Option key when you startup your Mac. If you replace the drive on your Ubuntu Linux computer with the same size drive or larger than the one you took an image of, then you can load from a live DVD. Thanks so much, John, for reminding us all to make it a priority to get a solid backup strategy in place so that our valuable time, money or memories will never be lost.