A Few Tricks I Learned about Backing Up Your Computer Work Including Your Website
It's not if your hard drive will crash it's when and even your website server could crash. How updated are your backups...?
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A Few Tricks I Learned about Backing Up Your Computer Work Including Your Website
It's not if your hard drive will crash it's when and even your website server could crash. How updated are your backups...?
I
didn't start out backing up my work, but I did learn the valuable
lesson of having ready to use up to date backups for both hard
drive and website. Since many of you don't have a website, let's
discuss some ideas on backing up your hard drive....
Two Hard Drives
Whenever
I get a new computer I always order and have installed a second
hard drive. Negotiate no installation fees if you're buying a new
computer. Make the second hard drive as big or preferably bigger
than your c drive which in most cases is your primary drive.
Next,
for us Window users, if you click on Start, Programs or All
Programs depending on your system, you'll see a special folder
called Startup. Anything in this folder runs on startup of
windows. Right mouse click on this foler and select open. See my
video on how to access your Startup folder.
Writing your Backup batch File or Downloading a Free Backup Bat
In
the Startup folder left mouse click on file, scroll down to New,
left mouse click on txt document. Name your file backup, press
Enter on your keyboard, press enter on your keyboard again to
open your text file. Type in ...
Xcopy c:\*.* Backuphard driveLetter:\ /s/c/e/I/d/y
Now
select Save As and give your file the .bat ending. your text
document with the .bat ending. Delete the text file and keep the
bat file. If you have too much trouble with all this I can write
a program to do this for you. Naturally they'd be a slight charge
for my time. As of the date of writing this I can't seem to get
the eight year old out of the habit of eating everyday.
Now
every time you open your desktop you'll get an automatic backup
to your second hard drive. You can download this same batch file
by joining my Hard2FindSoftware
Yahoo group and go to the files sections. You'll find some other
free software in there as well.
That's great Rick! But I don't have a second hard drive. What else can I do to backup my work?
I
do a lot of work on my pocket pc. In fact a lot of the software I
write uses text information files so I can work away from my
computer and avoid down time while picking up the wife at work or
the boy from his after school program. Therefore the memory card
I use is also compatible with my pocket pc.
If you don't have one yet get a large memory card or usb
storage device. This is a must. If your whole computer crashes it
may be in the shop for a while. Be sure to tell the repair tech
about your second hard drive if you have one for a backup, but in
the meantime you're on a deadline and your work is in your
crashed computer. You could go to a friend's computer or use your
laptop, but where's your work It's on your usb storage device!
Now here's the big secret, so tell your significant other
so everyone else will learn this secret. Instead of doing your
work on your hard drive and having to remember to copy your work
to the storage device, do your work on your storage device and
copy it to your computer!
You can have a similar backup
batch file on your usb device or you can use your Run command to
copy the xcopy command line. Warning though, I've noted several
times when my usb storage device or memory card changed drive
letters on me for no reason at all. So you can add different
drive letters to your bat as this happens (Vista will yell at you
but not very loud) or you can select different command lines from
the run command or once again I can write a program for you as
part of an overall package.
The command would be
Xcopy
StorageDeviceLetter:\*.* c:\ /s/d/i/e/y/c
Notice the back
slash \ and the forward slash / made popular by the internet.
By doing your work on your storage device it's always up
to date and if you find yourself at a strange computer with your
storage device you can still get work done by using the up to
date information in your storage device.
Yes in case
anyone is wondering the storage device for your digital camera
can store any type of data including your work.
Great advice Rick! I do happen to have a website. How do I back that up?
Make
an exact copy of your website on your storage device and on your
hard drive. I have a folder named www.KirkhamEbooks.com
In that folder are subfolders just like on my
website for martial arts, health and fitness, internet marketing
etc. (it's a huge site and has something for everyone). My backup
on my hard drive is so exact that if I open explore (not Internet
Explorer), highlight the www. In the top window, delete it and
click Enter on my keyboard the equivalent of that web page on my
website loads into Internet Explorer! That's how precise the copy
of my website is and you can follow the same procedure in case of
a crash!
To make your web pages you may use my online
HTML editor or my article
and sales page templates just like I am right now as I sit at
Kakaako
Park (older footage) here in Honolulu watching my son and his
friend slide down the hill on cardboard writing this very
sentence.
All you have to do now to backup your work is
follow the same procedures for backing up your hard drive. It's
that simple.
Conclusion
Whether
following my advice or using any of the programs I've listed for
you the time to think of backing up your work is when you're NOT
having trouble with your computer. This coming from a graduate of
the school of hard knocks of computer training and forced
formats. Stay out of my school and plan ahead.
About the Author
J.
Richard Kirkham has been in sales related fields for over 25
years. Over half of that time in a health
related field. He's a dual
certified teacher and martial
arts instructor. He has expertise in alternative teaching
methods and positive reinforcement methodology. He's written
several books in the printable electronic format and has made
downloadable videos and DVDs and has published software.
Fee
free to use the ideas which I've provided for you here or you can
use one of the popular backup programs I've listed for you
http://kirkhamsebooks.com/FreewareNShareware/Utilities/PopularBackups.html
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