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Safe
Computing home
Get
protected. Get connected.
Backups
Always
have at least two copies
Best
practices
Keep
your computer safe
Campus
Manager
Register
your computer
Malware
Aka
spyware or adware
Passwords
Why
and how to choose a strong one
Updates
Why
bother with these
Viruses
Keep
your computer healthy
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Safe Computing - Backups
A backup is a redundant copy of your data,
in case of an emergency. Computers are not as reliable as we would like
them to be. They suffer from virues, hardware failures, and the
occasional coffee accident. Making regular backups is the only protection you
have against data loss. There are a few simple guidelines to follow:
- Expect
to need your backup. Sometimes you just need to check an
old version, but sometimes your computer is kaput. If you plan to need
your backups, you'll be better
motivated to make them.
- Make
backups regularly. Don't let 6 months go by between
backups. You don't want to have to go through all that effort to
replicate something you've already done.
- Store
your backups somewhere else. That is, if you copy a file
on your computer, don't leave it on the same hard drive as the
original. If the hard drive fails, you'll lose both copies.
Likewise, if you burn your backup onto a CD, don't store it in your
laptop bag with your computer where they can both be stolen at the same
time. Store home backups at work, and work backups at home.
- Make
multiple backups. The more the better! If you back up a
file on the network and on a CD, you would need to have 3 simultaneous
problems in 3 separate locations to lose your work.
- Backup
what you need. Know what to back
up. Photos, documents, music, videos and similar things are all good
choices to back up, depending on how much space you have. Don't bother
backing up programs, because they don't work that way. If your computer
has problems you will probably need to reinstall all of your programs
anyway.
Backups are easy to make: just copy your
files to something that isn't your computer. There are many
possible ways to do it. Here are a few:
- Copy
your files to the Novell File
Server. It's as simple as connecting to Novell and
dragging your files
to the appropriate location. Network backups are very reliable but
limited to 200 megabytes of data.
How
to backup
your files to the Novell network (pdf document)
- Burn
a CD. If you want to save something
for a long time, use a CD. CDs store
about 700 megabytes of data, usually more than enough to back up
all your files. If you need more space, just burn a second CD. They're
cheap too! Some CDs can be written to multiple times - you don't
necessarily need a new CD for every backup. Burning a CD varies by
operating system and application, but it's still easy.
How
to burn a CD (pdf document)
- Copy
to a USB Flash Drive. Flash drives
are rapidly dropping in price. They are very easy to use - insert,
copy, remove. Flash drives are best for short-term backups because they
are not as reliable as CDs or hard drives.
How
to
use a flash drive (pdf document)
- Use
an External Hard Drive. External hard drives are spares
that you connect to your computer. Hard drives are very reliable, easy
to use and have a large amount of space. They are also the most
expensive backup solution. External hard drives usually come with
special backup
software. Using them is very similar to USB Flash drives, except you
leave them plugged in.
- Use
backup software. You don't need it to make your own
backups, but sometimes it's easier. Most programs feature scheduled
automatic backups and incremental backups (which are smaller, saving
only
the data that has changed since the last backup). They can also
compress your backups to make them smaller. The downside of backup
programs is that they usually put things into a proprietary format, so
you need to use the backup program to restore them.
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