August 17, 2007, Newsletter Issue #151: Doing a Simple Backup

Tip of the Week

Backing up your active files can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. Here is a way to simplify the backup process; after all, if it´s easy, you´re more likely to do it regularly!

Create a "Documents" folder

You can give it any name you want, but keeping all your active files (new files you´ve created, and files that you´ve changed recently) in one folder can immensely simplify your backup process. After all, there´s no need to back up your entire hard drive every day or even every week ... what you really need to save in case of a crash are current copies of your active files.

You can create as many sub-folders inside the Documents folder as you want, to keep you organized. In my own case, I have a separate folder for each client I do work for, folders for Macintosh information, for book reviews ... one for each category of the multiple jobs I do.

I usually back up my active files weekly, and since they´re all in one place, it´s a very simple process ... I just burn a dated copy of my Documents folder off on a CD, and file it away. It takes about 15 minutes.

Back up your entire hard drive every couple of months in the same way; just sort the files into 640MB chunks and burn as many CDs as it takes.

If you don´t happen to have a CD burner, you can do the same thing with a ZIP or JAZ drive or any of the other removable-media devices. You can even keep an external hard drive solely for backup if you want. There are online backup sites as well, like X-drive, but generally the free ones don´t give you much space.

Backing up your data may seem like a time-consuming, boring task ... but the first time your hard drive "buys the farm" (and it DOES happen, even with Macs) you´re going to be very, very glad you did!

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