Backing up your data is critical whether you are a business or a home user. A majority of businesses have backup systems in place using expensive tape or optical systems. For most small businesses and home users these systems are too expensive and are not user-friendly. Simpler solutions are available.
Microsoft's System Restore
Microsoft includes a system backup feature in all XP Home and XP Professional systems. When activated, the application takes snapshots of your computers settings and data. If you have system issues from a driver or application installation, you can easily restore your system to a previous known working state.
One of the issues with this process is that the data is stored on the hard drive. In the event your hard drive crashed or your system is destroyed by a disaster, the data is lost. Also, the application can not restore individual files, it replaces the current settings.
A Better Solution
While you should still continue to use the Microsoft System Restore, there are other options that are inexpensive and help provide additional backup capabilities. Many of these options make images of your hard drive and store them in a file that can be copied onto another hard drive in the event your main drive is corrupted.
Imaging a drive is very easy with applications from Symantec, PowerQuest, Paragon, Backup Exec and many others. We can assist you in finding the application that best fits your needs.
Component List
In addition to the imaging software, it is a good idea to store the hard drive image on an external hard drive that can be placed in a home safe or safe deposit box for added protection. You can purchase kits from Seagate, Maxtor and Western Digital that provide you an external hard drive chassis with a hard drive installed inside. These are available in a variety of sizes. You can also create your own external drive by purchasing an external hard drive chasis which retails between $30 and $70. In addition you can purchase any hard drive from your local computer store and within a couple of minutes have it installed in the enclosure and ready to connect it to your computer.
