The Absolutely Best Way to Protect Your Valuable Data – Or a Paranoid's Guide to Computer Backup

by Lillie Ammann
Paranoid Writer and Editor who has come to the rescue of way too many clients who lost their data — if you don't have Lillie to depend on to replace your valuable data, you need to learn how to protect it!

What do you have stored in your computer that you wouldn't want to lose? Financial data, important letters, precious photos, a private journal, projects for work ...? Whatever it is, your data is at constant risk from the mysterious BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) that means a computer crash, a virus, or even, heaven forbid!, your own mistake.

Of course, the first step in protecting your valuable data is take every precaution against viruses and spyware. Get 3-in-1 Protection for only $39.99 with the McAfee VirusScan Plus

But even when your computer is protected by the best security available, mistakes still happen. I've been accused of being paranoid, but I can't tell you how many times the same people who laughed at me for being paranoid have come to me and meekly asked, "Would you please send me a copy of XYZ file?" They really hate to tell me their computer crashed or they accidentally deleted the file – and didn't have a backup.

So, if you want to be the one people ask for a copy of a file rather than the one doing the asking, here's my paranoid's guide to computer backup.

• Every time I update important data, such as financial information, I make a backup copy of the file on my hard drive. This won't protect me in the case of a hard drive crash, but it does give me a second copy of the file in case the original gets corrupted in some way.
• At the end of each day, I back up my documents, e-mail, Web sites, and other data that I have worked on during the day to a jump drive. These small drives are also called flash or thumb drives. They are small (some people wear them on ribbons around their neck to avoid losing them), relatively inexpensive, and hold a lot of data. You can plug the drive into a USB port and copy the files to the drive quickly.
• I have two such drives and alternate daily backups between the two. Each is labeled with a number, and I keep track of which drive to use on an index card that I keep with the drives beside my computer. (See why they call me paranoid!) Storage Products at Low Prices -  Tech Depot
• Once a week, I backup all my data files on CDs for permanent storage. Since it takes more than one CD for all my data, I label each CD with the date and the files recorded on each. Note: I use regular, not rewriteable, CDs for permanent storage.

It only takes a couple of minutes to make the backup of the files as I use them, about 10 minutes for daily backups, and about half an hour for weekly backups. Not a lot of time to save years of work that could be lost in one computer crash or one moment of carelessness!