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Don't save programs or odd files. Save only the items you created.
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Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983
T e c h n o f i l e
Backing up is easy, Part 1: Save the stuff you created, not your program files
July 18, 2004
By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, The Post-Standard
Computer users must think they are extraordinarily lucky. Only a small percentage ever make backup copies of their files.
In truth, of course, it's not that computer users misgauge their luck. The real problem is a combination of lethargy and dread. Most of us would rather be bowling, watching TV or pursuing any other interest than doing backups. Besides, we're already convinced ourselves that backups are mysteries best left to nerds who don't have anything better to do.
But backing up isn't difficult at all. What's much harder than making backups are the consequences of NOT making them. If you store important financial information and family documents on your computer, you're inviting a disaster if you don't learn how to do backups.
First, forget everything you've ever heard about backing up your computer. Nearly all the advice that's going around is based on the idea of making two kinds of copies of your files -- one complete copy of just about everything, and a continually updated copy (done every day) of everything that's new or changed.
Humbug. That might be fine for your local bank, but it's ridiculous for you and me. Here's why.
The really important stuff on your computer, the material you probably can't get back if it's lost, is easy to identify. It's not your collection of programs or the way you've decorated your desktop or your assortment of downloads. It's your data.
"Data" is another way of saying "documents." Documents are special. Software is not.
When you buy, for example, Microsoft Office and install it on your Windows PC or Apple Macintosh, you're simply installing a clone of every other Windows or Mac version of that software. It's not unique and not very valuable. You can get another copy easily.
But as soon as you start using Microsoft Office, you begin to create your own special files. No matter what they are -- whether they're Microsoft Word documents or Excel spreadsheets or PowerPoint presentations -- they're documents. Extend this a little further: Each time you use your e-mail software to send a letter to your sister-in-law, you're making a document. And even further: Each time you take a picture with your digital camera and store it on your computer, you're making a document. (Popular culture has confused "document" with something your word processor creates. But pictures are just as much documents as texts are.)
Documents are data, and data is all you need to save when you do backups.
If we could distill the theory of backups into one sentence, that's what it would say. Everything else is mumbo-jumbo.
In other words, when you do a backup, you don't have to copy everything. That would be a waste of time and storage space. You can reinstall your software from the original CDs or from the original downloaded files. All you need to save is the stuff you created -- your documents.
Examples of "stuff you created" are easy to find. Here are some examples. They're mail you wrote, word processor documents you created, Quicken or Microsoft Money data files you've been using, password lists you've saved and images you got from your scanner or digital camera.
There are exceptions. The most common one concerns the way the popular iTunes Music Store works.
If you buy music from the iTunes Music Store, using iTunes software for Windows or Macintosh, the music files you got from the iTunes store are documents that might seem to qualify for backups. But you didn't create them, so they're in the same kind of category as your software; you can reinstall all those songs you bought if you lose them and don't have backups. (iTunes will re-download purchased music for free if you've lost the files.)
Remember: All you need to save in a backup is the stuff you created -- your documents. Doesn't this make the prospect easier to bear?
Next week: Making software do the rest of the work for you when you back up your documents.
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