SaneThinking.com "Protecting yourself from a laptop disaster

Protecting yourself from a laptop disaster - What you need to do.

The solution to part of the problem, the data loss, is backing up and the solution to the total problem, software loss, is to backup and clone. That short assertion obviates any need to read all the competing information on the subject. It is all you need to know, as a user as opposed to being technically interested in the subject. Does a child need to know how a crayon is made before redecorating?

I have pre-thought this out for you, so this is not a list of all the options open to you, far from it, in fact I have deliberately ignored the usual answers that you will find put forward ubiquitously elsewhere.

I have my own protection policy resulting from my own ideas, my own experience and findings and as a result I have established a clear philosophy which is at variance with a large number of groups and individuals - all of whom may well be expert and perhaps more so than me even in this particular area of computing, expert but wrong, Microsoft is one example.

My philosophy and policy is one that you should consider very seriously and then adopt for yourself too. After you have followed my advice then by all means look around and listen to what other people are advising or offering and then ask yourself how much do they really know about the things they are advising about .

Gossipy aside
While I was writing this series I came across an article that reports that Microsoft has disabled it's backup software system and a cursory reading seems to reveal that they did this because it was lacking in quality and, it seems to me, that the reason for this is their 'eggs in one basket' approach. However, I also note a number of other things about their backup design that just don't stand up to sensible reasoning. So if you think that such a huge business doesn't make big mistakes over fundamental ideas, then think again.

Although, up to this point not many people would disagree with what I have so far put forth in these articles, we have now arrived at a fork in the road where I need to explain the options open to you and tell you why I choose my own particular set. I may also mention why I don't use any of the other options but this series of short articles is not about telling you about all the options available to you but about the options that I think are the only sensible ones to adopt for your own needs.

So I now want to jump right in and tell you that you have two things that you really should begin doing on a regular basis, just as I do and have been doing for long enough to know from experience that it is the only way forward.

Decide, if you haven't already, to download Bax It! and use it.

That is a stopgap measure to give you some protection but it is a bit premature because it assumes that you already have a spare second hard drive available before we have covered that part of the series about choosing and buying a second hard drive. If you decide that data backup is all you want then just get my free backup program and use it.

But I hope you won't settle for that for long and after a while you will want more protection..

Back up ALL your sofware

You really should back up ALL your sofware and not just your data. This means you have to backup and clone (ignoring all the other pointless alternatives)

Note: Backup programs do not usually backup up the system. This is why cloning is done. My policy is to backup and clone. Backup for data and most other software protection. Clone for system protection. Backup and clone for maximum software protection.

Caveat:
Backup usually protects all your software but you may possibly have some program that cannot be readily backed up. Therefore you must check your backup from time to time to verify for yourself that everything works as expected. Don't leave it until you need it to find out that something went wrong. No backup program can realistically guarantee 100% success because the nature of software is not fixed, is not set in stone.

Always backup to a separate hard drive.

Use a second drive (don't even come near me with that word: "partition"; I have banned it along with the 'F' word on my site.

The days of expensive hard drives is long gone. They used to be so expensive that there were other animals, lesser alternatives, in the same zoo called "Tape backup units". Also banned and banished to some IT museum somewhere.

Save yourself a whole load of confusion and nuisance. It's a second hard drive you have to have and no quibbling. But, before you race out to buy one, hold your horses, we have some more learning before you are ready to dash down to the shops and spend your money.

Now let's get a few other things straight too. You haven't yet bought your second drive but prepare to and start saving. But you can consider this. The drive you buy will be the same size as the one in your laptop or bigger and by bigger I mean much bigger, usually at least twice as big. That's a basic fact and it is the basis for me to rubbish a big assumption that needs to be got out of the way now along with that p word (pa***tion)

What this means is that you don't want to and you don't need to and it is a real pain if you do pick and choose what you backup. One rule from now on for you to stick to: Back It ALL. No if's, no but's.

Clarification:
I say "Back it all" to KISS but behind the scenes and with no messy quibbly option/preferences the detail is tucked away and it is this. My policy is to ignore all .tmp files and possibly one or two other files too. 9999.99% of the time, as 'end user' you don't give a damn, rightly, whether this stuff is backed up or not because it is more trouble than it's worth to even give it a thought. Technically, yes, it's considered and my policy is applied and you get the full benefit of that pre-thinking. This is NOT a loss to you it is a GAIN. This is not heavy handedness but common sense.

This then is the basis for your own backup protection policy so far: Backup everything and back it up to a second hard drive.

If you simply copy that policy for yourself then it will save you confusion, trouble, messing around pointlessly and make life a lot easier.

Just before finishing this article it might be worth adding that at no time will you ever consider either of these two very common backup options: data compression and proprietary backup formats. As far as you and I are now concerned they belong with the P word and the F word, banished forever from this site and form your sight too.

Next article: Good backup policy.

Main Contents Page for this series

By Paul E. Coughlin
SaneThinking.com
4 June 2008

You may like to know that there may be other articles, similar to this one, here, in this category:
Laptop Owners

If no earlier date is shown above then this page began life on 08.06.2008. It was most recently updated, improved, tarted-up, sexed-up, modified, polished, or just imperceptably re-edited, due, most likely, to compulsive and unrestrained perfectionism, influenced quite possibly by a minor degree of pedantic extremism, on 09.06.2008.