Do you know how to use the backup program built into Windows XP?
Would
you like to know how it works and how it can save your data in case of a
catastrophic failure?
The program is located in the System Tools section of
Accessories, simply called Backup. If you do not see Backup in the System Tools,
you can access the program by typing
ntbackup.exe at the
start/run command line. This will start with a splash screen select AdvancedModeand the program will start as you see it below. You will need a place to store your data. I
suggest an external device, if you don't have a large amount of data a pen/flash
drive will do, but if you have say a gig or more then the pen/flash drive will
only hold one backup session, you may want a larger device.
Check my Data Backup pages for the different types of devices and types of
backup you can do.
Upon opening the Backup program, you will be greeted by the Backup
page, you can use the wizard on the first backup. The following procedure will
walk you through a successful backup. You can use your local hard drive the
first time through, then when you have an external device copy the backup over
and use that for your scheduled backups.
Once you click on the Backup button you will be given an Explorer view of
your computer, check the boxes of the
directories you want to backup, if you want to drill deeper into the directory
to select individual files then click on the plus buttons until you reach the
desired level. put a check mark in each box you want to back up. Next you have
to name the file of the backup and the location of the backup, I suggest you
create a folder just for your backups on an external device.
Once you have your selections, click on the 'Start Backup', the
process will ask you for a backup description and if you want to append (add to)
an existing backup or replace a back up. If you use a different name each time
this will be irrelevant.
Next click the 'Advanced' button, here you will select options
for 'Verify data after backup' (recommended!), 'Disable volume shadow
copy' (recommended), and 'Backup Type'. If you are going to setup a scheduled
back up then you would select daily, if you just want to backup items that have
changed select 'Incremental' - Note: you have to use append when you use
'Incremental or Differential' backup types. If this is a one time backup leave
the selection at 'Normal'.
If you want to start your scheduled backup now select the 'Schedule' button the
process will ask you if you want to save the backup selections at this time,
select 'Yes'
Name your backup, select the folder where the backup
profile will be saved, you can leave the folder as default.
Your next steps are to setup the schedule for your backups, I suggest you set
your schedule for the end of the work day,
that way your back up will be complete for the day it is run. Name your backup,
if you run different types of backups use creative names, daily for everyday
backups (Incremental), month end if you run a complete backup at the end of the
month, year end if you run a complete backup at the end of the year.
Once you have the date set, set the time or you will get this
error:
Next step is setting the actual schedule, if this is a one time backup leave at
once, if you want it to run on a daily, weekly, other schedule select the
appropriate type. Set your start time also, you should do your backup when your
computer is not being utilized and you have open files, if a file is open the
process will skip that file. This means that if you start the backup and you
have selected the location where your email is located and it is open then it
will not backup your email files.
Click ok, the process will run at the scheduled time.
This is a sample of the backup process in progress.
Are you a laptop owner? Here is a web site with good information about
hard drive back up..
