Backup Software Basics

November 20th, 2009 by Steve Evans

It has happened numerous times before, will happen again, and is one of the unfortunate situations all computer users must face at some point. What I’m referring to is loss or corruption of computer data. You have undoubtedly permanently deleted a vital file at some point or another in your computer career. What about making multiple changes to an important file and running out of undos, or the software you are using doesn’t even support undos! Maybe your computer has crashed or a virus caused damage to your hard drive, and now you have no access to your important data. Every end user of a computer system is susceptible to data loss whether we would like to admit it or not.

Therefore, those wanting more information about ways to backup their data have found the right article to read. There are multitudes of backup software for Windows available, all with varying features.

The basic data file backup options have a standard user interface which allows you to indicate the files you want to back up and the time you want to back them up. You can specify that you only want files that have changed since the previous backup to be included in the schedule backup. This is very effective if you accidentally delete a file or if you want to revert back to an old version of a file. This might be sufficient for some people, and often is, however, your data integrity is only as good as its last backup.

Almost all Windows backup software supports backing up your data file to storage devices which include external hard drives, DVDs and other USB type storage devices. There are software types that also allow you to backup your data to an online server or on to your own network.

If you require a more advanced file backup solution then the standard file backup discussed above, you may want to look at software that supports disaster recovery and/or continuous data protection.

Disaster recover technology give you the ability to restore all of your computer data to a earlier time. You will not be required to reinstall Windows or your applications, and you won’t have to restore your settings and data files. They will all be included in the backup.

With Continuous Data Protection, your files are backed up in real time. As you work with your important files, each revision will be included into a backup. This is a great benefit because if there comes a time that you need to restore a file you will be able to restore the newest version or whatever version you need and not an older version from the previous backup.

So, there you have it. An overview of what to look for when choosing a backup solution for your Windows computer system. You can quickly and easily employ a set and forget backup solution to help with data loss. The type of software you choose will be indicative of the importance of the data you are backing up.