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Ira Wilsker ColumnBy Ira Wilsker
Backup Your Computer with NTI
By Ira Wilsker
WEBSITES:
The oft repeated three most important words in computing are
"Backup, Backup, and Backup". Murphy�s first law of
computing is, "A properly backed up hard drive will never
fail, but as soon as there is not a current backup, the hard
drive will always fail at the most inopportune time."
Another cliché is that there are only two types of hard
drives, "Those that will fail and those that have already
failed."
Despite evolutionary changes in hard drive technology,
especially in capacity, with terabyte drives now readily
available and affordable (a terabyte is either 1000 or 1024
gigabytes, depending on the reference); hard drive life
expectancy and failure rate is still a vital and
contemporary issue that we all must ultimately deal with.
Despite exercising proper precautions such as providing
clean and uninterrupted power via a UPS (uninterruptible
power supply), and adequate cooling, I still have had hard
drives fail in my primary computers. The computer I am
typing this column on has a three year old hard drive that
has been heavily worked, but presently tests OK; despite
that, I keep current backups of all critical files on my
hard drive. As frustrating as it may be, hard drive failures
are quite survivable provided a current backup is available.
In addition to hard drive failure from heat or dirty power,
data on hard drives can also be damaged or lost by external
forces, such as fire, theft, flood, hurricane, or other
maladies. As Hurricane Rita threatened the area, I performed
another complete backup of my hard drive. When I complied
with the mandatory evacuation orders for Rita, the very
first item I packed in my suitcase was my external hard
drive with my latest complete backup, a set of emergency
recovery CDs, and other CDs containing copies of critical
data files such as spreadsheets, tax information, and other
important personal information that I had on my computer.
While the data on the CDs were duplicate copies of what was
also on the external hard drive, redundancy is a wise
precaution to take for otherwise irreplaceable files. While
my computer survived the ravages of Rita, many others in the
region were not so fortunate, and lost years of critical
data, family photos, music collections, family financial
information, and other important data.
I have two external USB 2.0 hard drives that I use for
backing up data, only one of which is plugged into the UPS,
and connected to the computer at any given time.� The other
external hard drive is stored away from the computer, and
periodically rotated with the one that is connected.�
External hard drives can fail also, and I do not want to be
caught unprepared when my primary internal hard drive
eventually fails. I use two separate backup programs from NTI (www.ntius.com) to
backup my hard drive and its critical files, with each
program providing different functionality and protection.
The program I predominately use to backup critical data
files is NTI�s Shadow (currently version 3.7),
currently available for PCs, Mac, and U3 compatible flash
drives for about $20. Shadow does not perform a complete
backup of the hard drive, but instead backups selected data
files, selected formats (such as .jpg, .doc, .xls, etc.), or
selected categories (such as photos, music, videos, etc.) to
any desired device; my personal choice of backup device is
to an external hard drive. Shadow is not a resource hog and
does not adversely affect performance, and I have it running
in the background whenever my computer is turned on; that
way my files are being continuously backed up, including any
new or changed files saved to my hard drive. Shadow backs up
files in native format, which means that they can be read
directly from the backup device without the necessity of any
additional software or utilities. Recovering or restoring
any damaged or missing data files on the hard drive is
simple, accomplished by simply copying the desired files
from the external device (or CD, DVD, flash drive, etc.) to
the internal hard drive using Windows Explorer or any other
file manager program. Another feature in Shadow is the
ability to sequentially save up to 10 revisions of any data
files; this column, for example, has already been saved to
my external hard drive several times by Shadow, each
additional save, up to the selected limit (uses "first in -
first out, or FIFO"), to control the number of sequential
saves. I just looked at my external hard drive and there are
four previous �saves� of this current file I am typing and
auto-saving every five minutes. If I wanted to go back to an
earlier version of this column, I could very easily open it
from the external hard drive, using a sequential copy saved
by Shadow.
I use my other external hard drive to periodically make a
full backup of my hard drive, sometimes referred to as an
"image" of the hard drive. With an image, if my hard drive
were to fail (and it eventually will), I could install a new
hard drive in my computer, boot the computer with a bootable
CD, and copy the image of my defunct hard drive from the
external backup drive to the new drive. After restoring the
image to the new hard drive, it will appear identical to the
failed hard drive with all programs installed and running,
and all data files in their proper places. My chosen program
for this backup function is NTI's Backup Now, currently in a
newly released version 5. The new NTI Backup Now 5 comes in
two versions, the $50 Standard Edition, and the $100
Advanced Edition. Some might feel that spending $50 or $100
for backup software may be expensive, but the cost of losing
data, or recovering data from a dead hard drive, can be many
times that.
The Standard Edition is a comprehensive and adequate backup
utility with a variety of features. It can backup selected
files and folders, filter by file type, backup to almost any
type of device (hard drive, CD, DVD, Blu-ray DVD, etc.),
perform incremental backups (only backup files that are new
or changed since the last backup; this is what I do on a
regular basis), span across multiple drives or discs (if one
is filled, another can be used), encrypt the backups, and
backup across networks. The Advanced Edition does all of
that, plus offers the additional functionality of continuous
or real time backups (like Shadow), file version control
(also like Shadow), can create complete images of the hard
drive, offers disaster recover utilities, an open file
backup (can backup files that are write protected at the
time of backup), and "Test Drive Utilities" to check the
functionality and condition of any backup media.
On my computer I have the NTI Backup Now 5 Advanced Edition
installed, because I choose to have the increased
functionality. I use the Advanced Edition to periodically
(about monthly) make a full backup or image of my hard
drive, and about weekly, I perform an incremental backup,
which backs up any new or revised files to one of my
external hard drives. I also used Advanced Edition to create
an emergency or rescue CD or DVD, which may be necessary to
boot the computer with a new replacement hard drive
installed, and then restore the backed up image. On a
continuous basis, I have Shadow running to make contemporary
and real time backups of all of my critical data files to my
other external hard drive. In the event of a catastrophic
hard drive failure or other major damage, I can be up and
running in a few hours, having lost nothing but the restore
time.
It may be a slight inconvenience in time to create and
maintain backups, and a moderate expense to have backup
software and hardware installed and running. This
inconvenience in time, and the cost, is very minor when
compared to the aggravation, and likely major expense of a
catastrophic data loss. Whatever hardware and software you
choose to use, just remember to backup, backup, and backup.
It is better to have it and not need it, than to need it and
not have it.
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