Ask Alexander: The Technician Magician

The goal of this column is to assist readers with their computer troubles. Questions should be e-mailed to alexanderfb@gmail.com. I’m pretty flexible, and I’ll try to answer all questions related to computers of any kind that I can provide a meaningful answer to. As long as you provide enough information with your request (such as what kind of computer you’re asking for help with,) I’ll do my best to help you. So please send your questions! If I need more information before I can give any meaningful advice, I’ll ask before I pick your letter to print.

This issue is a classic column which originally ran in fall 2007.

Shirley asks:

My friend says that I should backup my data regularly. The problem is, I really have no idea how to go about doing this! It sounds pretty complicated and my computer seems fine right now. Should I even worry about this?

Answer:

You should! In addition to the possibilities of virii and accidental file deletion, normal PC hard drives which are kept on for significant periods of time during the day certainly don’t last forever! They are mechanical devices with bearings and lots of fast-moving parts in close quarters, after all.

The simplest option for backing up your data would probably be, ironically, an external hard drive. As long as you only power it on in order to update your backup and store it in a *safe* place when you’re not using it, your average USB 2 commodity external drive purchased from CompUSA should last quite a while. (Or at least longer than your more-often-used desktop or laptop drive.)
Assuming you’re using Windows XP: Once you plug your external hard drive into your computer and it gives itself a drive letter, you can use a tool like Microsoft’s SyncToy (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/syn...) to keep the directories on your PC in sync with mirror directories you create for them on the external drive. SyncToy is pretty simple to figure out; just create a “pair” for the original directory on your PC and another directory you create to mirror it on the external drive. (If, when you go to install SyncToy, it asks you to install the .Net 2.0 Framework, say yes. It’ll take you to the download site for that. You probably want the X86 version, if you’re running on a normal PC with Windows XP.)

If you’re using a Mac, you might try something with similar functionality to SyncToy. One free tool that I know of is PsyncX. (http://psyncx.sourceforge.net/) It operates on the same principle of pairing folders to synchronize. (I can’t say I have much experience with it, though, since I usually mirror my Windows PC and Mac from the other side.)

Of course, if you have large amounts of unchanging data (like, say, an excessive anime collection...) backing your data up on CD-Rs or DVD-Rs is also viable as long as you store them properly. You can find more information concerning writable CDs and their limitations at http://cdrfaq.org/. However you choose to backup your data, just make sure you do it regularly and you should be fine.