Backing Up Your Data

Like any other electronic/mechanical device, the hard drive in your computer can fail at any time. Therefore, it is important to make backup copies of your important files on a regular basis. For most users once a week is sufficient. The files should be saved on a removable media such as a Zip Disk or CD-RW (re-writeable CD) and stored in a safe place.

The first question you should ask yourself is “What should I backup?” Backing up the entire hard drive is time-consuming, not practical, and should not be done. A backup of specific data files is far more efficient. In Windows, there are four general categories of data that should be backed up. These are documents, e-mail, Internet links, and data associated with specific programs.

Documents may include Word (or WordPerfect) documents, spreadsheets, databases, and presentations (such as Power Point presentations). For the sake of convenience, it is recommended that all documents be stored in the My Documents folder. You may, however, have documents in other locations. It is important to know where you have stored documents so that they are easy to locate/backup.

E-mail data may be stored in one of a couple of ways depending on the e-mail program you are using. The recommended and most frequently used e-mail program on our campus is Eudora. The data is usually located in the C:\Program Files\Qualcomm\Eudora folder. (If you have trouble locating this folder, contact OIIT.)

Backing up your saved Internet Links means locating your Favorites, if you use Internet Explorer. If you are a Netscape user, please contact OIIT for assistance in locating your links. To locate your Favorites in Windows 2000, double click My Computer, double click Local Disk (C:), double click Documents and Settings, double click user name (this will be your login name). The Favorites folder is located here.

Some programs may save your data and settings in other locations on your hard drive. Examples of these type programs are SPSS, SAS, etc. If you are unsure where these files are located, contact OIIT for directions on locating and backing up data from other programs.

Second question you should ask yourself is “How do I want to backup my data?” You may choose to backup your data using a CD Recorder or a Zip Drive. (If you don’t have either device, contact OIIT for pricing information.) Regardless of the media you choose, an easy way to back up data is by using the copy and paste feature of Windows.

ZIP DISK: Insert a disc in the zip drive. Double click on My Computer to locate the folders you wish to backup. My Documents is available on the desktop. Right click on the folder you are backing up and select copy. Double click on My Computer and locate the Zip Drive (usually it’s the I: drive), right click and select paste.

For advanced users, the following batch file will work for backing up “My Documents” and your Eudora files on a W2K computer. It is important that the contents of the Eudora Attach folder be cleaned out or Eudora will probably not fit on your Zip disk.

Save this code as backup.bat in from note pad using the save as – all files option. It can be run from the desktop.

deltree /y i:\eudora
md i:\eudora
xcopy /y c:\"program files"\qualcomm\eudora\*.* /s /e i:\eudora
deltree /y i:\"my documents"
md i:\"my documents"
xcopy /y c:\"my documents"\*.* /s /e i:\"my documents"
deltree /y i:\favorites
rem md i:\favorites
rem xcopy /y C:\WINDOWS\Favorites\*.* /s /e i:\favorites

CD RECORDER: Insert a CD-RW (Rewritable CD) into your CD Recorder Drive. The CD-RW must be formatted (http://www.gsw.edu/~oiit/techsupp/cdrw.html#RW) before use. Locate the folders you wish to backup, right click on the folders and select copy. Locate the CD Recorder device by double clicking on My Computer, right click and select paste.