Desktop Systems Support Group
Data Backup
Imagine yourself celebrating after completing a significant document you have been working on for months or years… until one day disaster strikes! A power outage or computer crash corrupts, or worse, wipes out, your precious document, or perhaps your computer was stolen, and NO BACKUP was made of this precious work! How important is your data to you? Do you have the time, money and the energy to do the work all over again? Any of these questions should be sufficient enough to make you backup your important data as soon as possible on a regular basis.
It does not take much time to do a data backup, as it is easy to create another copy of your files onto another medium and kept in another safe location. Nowadays, computer users are presented with a few options, to backup important data. The choice is based on the size of the data, how often it is modified, and how long it should be kept for.
Data backup is the responsibility of staff and students, since University resources are limited.
Backup Options
- Remote Backup Service (RBS) - DSSG provides a backup service to Windows and Macintosh users using RBS and Retrospect client software (link to Retrospect info). Subscribers to this service only have to leave their systems ON and the backup will be done remotely for them on a daily or weekly basis depending on your subscription. This is only available to clients who have their own computer allocated to them.
- Online backup – some staff may have a connection to their Faculty servers that allows them to store important data. These servers are automatically backed-up, however it is still a good idea to create another backup of your data on your hard disk or another medium. A local backup is beneficial when there is no network connectivity.
- Flash Drives, memory sticks or thumb drives – good for small amount of data, with unlimited rewrite capabilities, and are easy to plug into any computer with a USB port. However, these are easily lost because of their small size.
- CD-R/CD-RW drives – most computers on campus are equipped with this technology. Recording media is cheap especially when purchased in bulk. Note that CD-Rs can only be written once. Unlike the CD-RW, they can be rewritten any number of times.
- DVD-Rs/DVD-RW drives – as with CD-R/CD-RW. However, DVD technologies can hold either 4.7GB, or in the case of dual-layer DVDs, 8.5GB, compared to the 650-700MB capacity of CD media.
- External Hard drives – easy to plug into any computer with a USB port. Copying of data is very easy.
How to Back Up
- Windows XP provides a simple backup without the need for special skills or software. To copy a file or folder, right-click on it and select Copy from the pop-menu that appears. Choose the disk or drive where you want to store the backup copy, right-click again and then select Paste from the pop-menu.
- A drag-and-drop method can also be used to copy files in other Windows operating systems. Just hold down the right mouse button while dragging a file or folder, then select Copy Here from the pop-up menu that appears.
- The software that is included with your CD or DVD or external hard drives can also be used if preferred.
Important check. No matter which backup option you choose, be sure to check that it works. Try to recover or restore those backup files to a different drive. Don’t wait until it is too late to find that the restore process doesn’t work.
Should you need to discuss your backup needs, please ring us on 7722 or email us at dssg.servicedesk@latrobe.edu.au.
|
