This article was published in the Chamber of Northeast Cincinnati's "Navigator" magazine for members of the chamber.

By Don Wallace, Computer Support of Warren County

“It’s 11:00 – do you know where your data is?”

PC users are “preached to” by computer vendors to “back up your data regularly” in the same righteous vein as flossing regularly or changing your engine oil every 3000 miles.

The difference is this: “backing up your data” is something that you almost need to be an “IT expert” to accomplish usefully. Nobody gives the average PC user clear, obvious directions as to how to safeguard their data by making additional copies of it.

What I will do this month is to provide you with information about a really easy and practical way to back up important data. It will probably cost you a few dollars, but it will give you great peace of mind.

The point is this: the easier it is for you to back up, the more likely that you will do it. (Sounds like some diets!) And this is easy.

External, Portable Hard Drives – “Huh?”

An external hard drive is a hard drive which you plug into your computer as needed. When you plug the external hard drive in, it becomes accessible to Windows. You can then basically duplicate large portions of the data on your hard drive periodically so that you always have a backup. How large? Entire “Outlook PST” files of multi-gigabyte size, for instance.

The single great advantage of an external hard drive over other backup media such as CDs, DVDs or tapes, is that it’s seamless – there is no swapping of disks necessary when you use it. You can copy most of your PC’s data to it, and walk away until the operation has completed. Unplug the drive, and put it away until the next time you back up – or when you need to recover your precious data.

What does it cost?

I use a hard drive of the "Ximeta" brand. Ximeta’s drives can use either your network (Ethernet) or USB connector. The 80 gigabyte drive is currently available online for $99 and up, refurbished.

And What Software?

Maybe none. Because an external hard drive looks like a new drive letter to Windows, you can use the “Windows Explorer” to copy your data to the external hard drive. You can “drag and drop” files from your PC to the external hard drive using the mouse.

Or, if you prefer more handholding, there are free and commercial software programs that give structure to the process. (Google or use your preferred search engine to find these programs):

• SyncBack – a well regarded free backup program
• Second Copy – an extremely well liked commercial program
• Windows Backup – free, built into Windows – takes some patience and skill to work with.
• WinZip – bundles up your files into compressed “zip” files - requires some skill to use.

Conclusion

I have described a painless, easy way to maintain a second copy of your data that doesn’t require a stack of disks nor the patience of a saint to use in your everyday work.