Why Should You Backup Your Computer Files?

You may not think you have a good reason to backup your computer information. You're not a bank protecting thousands of customers from losing their financial information, nor are you a government body storing personal data for millions of people. But that doesn't mean that the pictures and e-mails and recipes on your drive aren't priceless. To you, they hold memories perhaps of an entire lifetime. While losing those things may not impact anyone but you, you owe it to yourself to safeguard the things that you love. Protecting your computer's files is a necessity in the digital age when so many people keep so much of themselves on their computer.

Some people have been keeping copies of their computer's files for decades. And it was always done the same way. You had to buy an expensive stack of floppy disks or CDs and organize your files so that everything in a category would fit onto one disk. Then, you had to label everything and store it away, taking up hours of time and lots of space. And you had to be very careful since something as simple as a little water, some scratches or even a magnet could erase all your information and hard work. Of course, you could buy a protective safe for all those storage disks, but even then you may not have enough space and you're just spending more money you don't want to spend.

But technology has come a long way when it comes to storage space. Now, you can buy external hard drives which will plug in to almost any computer you can find and work immediately. And all of your data is organized in folders, just like on your home computer's built-in drive. No more sorting through stacks of CDs and floppies. You can also get these drives in sizes that were unheard of until recently. Some drives can hold multiple terabytes of information, more than almost anyone could possibly need. For instance one terabyte drive could store over 200,000 photos at 5 megabytes each.

But not everyone wants to run out and buy a new, and often expensive, hard drive. While it lets you keep all of your files with you, which offers some comfort to most people, it can be a bit daunting for some people. Fortunately, there are plenty of companies which offer very user-friendly ways to store your data online. If you choose to use their services, you will be able to backup your computer using their storage devices. And you can rest easy because most of these companies house their servers in highly protected areas where they are nearly immune to damage or corruption. Your files are much safer with them than they are sitting in your office.

Whichever method you choose to backup your computer doesn't really matter. Just do something to keep your computer's information safe! If you use an online service such as Carbonite online backup, it is very affordable (less than $5/month) and they take care of all the work for you. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Travis_Van_Slooten

Great Tips For Hard Disk Recovery

To protect your system before a huge mistake, you can use the Hard disk recover tool; with the purpose of creating an ASR joint (Automatic System Recovery) periodically. The automatic system recovery assistant creates a security copy of two parts that can be used to recover the system after the rest of the recovery methods or changing the hard drive fails.

ASR makes a security copy of the state of the system, the system services and all the disks associated to the operative system components. It also creates a start disk that contains information about the security copy, drive settings (with the basic and dynamic volumes) and instructions about how to perform a restoration. You must create a new ASR joint after any important changes in the system and also periodically as part of a complete security copies plan.

To create this, you only need to open the security copy or restoration assistant which can be found in the system tools, then click in the recovery Automatic System Recovery button. After this, the assistant will tell you what to do. There are some specific details that you should not forget when creating the hard disk recovery, details such as:

When going through the process, you must be a member of the Managers group or from the SC Operator's group in the local equipment. If the equipment is connected into a domain, the members of the Administrator group can perform this procedure. As a recommended security practice, you should consider the possibility of using the Execute option to perform this procedure.

To initiate a security copy, click on the Start menu, select All the Programs, Accessories, System Tools and then click on the SC option. With this procedure you can only make security copies from the files needed to start the system. You will have to make a security copy of the data aside.

After creating the ASR collection, make sure to make distinctions in the disk and in the security copies and store them together. To use the security copy media, you must have the disk that you created with them. You cannot use a disk created sometime else or with another collection of media. Likewise, in the moment in which you are performing the automatic system recovery, you should have the installation CD available.

Keep the ASR collection in a safe place. The ASR collection contains information about the system settings that could be used to damage your information or yourself.

If you are going to do a security copy of a cluster of servers, execute the Assistant for an automatic system recovery in all of the cluster nodes and make sure that the service of the Cluster Server is been executed at the time of starting a security copy with the Automatic System Recovery.

Tony Novoa System Engineer. Copyright 2009, (Please note source if reprinting this article.) Visit http://www.seekinusa.com http://www.seekinusa.com/computers/hard-disk-recover.asp For more tips, skills, and insight on computers, internet, sms, dating, relationships, love, ecc. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tony_Novoa