Backing Up Your Data Kim Peacock, Med Technology Professional Development

DTE Backup Campus computers and laptops only.

What the Faculty Does  DTE Automatic Backup Service  This service is meant to provide backup documents if required for disaster recovery only.  This service is not intended to provide a method of archiving data.

Who Gets It?  On the written request by a faculty member, documents in a specific folder on the local drive of the faculty member’s computer will be backed up to the DTE disk backup system.  Support staff computers are backed up automatically without the requisition.

What Gets Backed Up?  Files in the "Documents and Settings" folder (Windows 2000 or XP)  Files in the "Users" folder (Mac OS X)  NO MP3 files are ever backed up, so if you have data in MP3 format, you must back it up yourself.  in most cases there is a 2 GB limit of data that is backed up by DTE (your is included in this limit).

When Does It Happen?  Desktop computer backup services occur from 10 PM to 6 AM.  Those requesting this service are asked to log out of their operating system, reboot the computer, leave it powered on and power off the monitor.  Only machines connected directly to the Faculty network will be backed up.

IMPORTANT!!!  Your computer MUST be turned on for the backup to happen.

Home Laptop Backups  Laptop computer backup services occur at either 10 AM or 2 PM as agreed upon by the client.  The laptop must be powered on and connected to the network for a contiguous three hour window of time for this to be completed.

How DTE Backup Works  Incremental backups occur daily Monday through Friday  A full backup occurs every 2 weeks - this is a complete copy of the designated folders.  At the end of each month, each user's last full backup is copied onto an off-site disk that is stored in a secure location outside of the Education buildings.

Important Point!  Data is only retained for 1 month!!!  If you are looking for something older than that, DTE will not be able to find it, which is why you need to backup your own data.

More Questions  For further information, contact Bob Bolt, Network Services Supervisor (

Backing Up Your Data Home computers and safety net for office computers.

Why Worry?  Things that can cause a complete loss of data:  Spilling coffee on your laptop.  Bringing your laptop too close to a magnetic object.  Dropping your laptop.  A power surge.  Old age.

How Often?  As often as you feel that a loss of data would result in a significant, irrecoverable loss.  How many days worth of information could you afford to lose if your computer crashed? What about if your office or home burned down? What about if most of your city was wiped out by a tornado or a flood?

What to Back Up?  all your web pages, databases, and anything that you made or would have trouble replacing  all the information from your financial software  important correspondence  all the information from inventory control, customer databases, or other specialist business software  internal documents (important memos and the like)  anything you would suffer for lack of if it lost

Might Want to Backup  You MIGHT want to backup:  your , especially if it has customer queries, contact data, or other business-critical information  preferences or bookmarks from web browsers  your personal settings for how your computer works  anything that would be a nuisance if it was lost

Don’t Need to Backup  your operating system, so long as you have the original disks  your software, so long as you have the original disks  strictly temporary files (like a webcache, or anything in the trash can)  anything that you are CERTAIN you won't need if the entire computer becomes rubbish.

Gather Your Data  If you know your system well enough, you can simply pick what to back up yourself.  Generally copy the entire “Documents and Settings” folder in your c: drive or the entire “Users” folder in a mac.  If you want more variety, use software!

Mac Software  Mac Backup 3 (with.mac membership)  ml  Recovery Software at Download.com  _ html?tag=dir _ html?tag=dir _ html?tag=dir

Using Windows XP Backup  Backup wizard that lets you select files and create a repeating backup schedule.  Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup  Click Next and follow the instructions on the wizard.  For a more detailed step-by-step guide to using the wizard, see: up/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx up/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx up/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx

PC Software  If you don’t want to use the built in backup, there are other software options.  PC – Simply Safe Backup  Simply-Safe-Backup/ _ html Simply-Safe-Backup/ _ html Simply-Safe-Backup/ _ html

The Big Option – How?!  To protect your files you should back them up onto either:  A DVD or CD,  A memory stick,  An external hard drive or  your GPU or xena space.  your GPU or xena space.

Backing Up to DVD / CD  Good for larger quantities of data, like the entire “Documents and Settings” or “Users” folder.  Not good for individual files (wasteful).  Shelf life of 2-10 years.  If something tragic happens, it goes too!

Backing Up to Memory Stick  Very flexible… you can take it with you anywhere.  Smaller capacity (up to 4 GB normally)  Can be damaged (though they’re pretty resilient nowadays).  s.asp?logon=&langid=EN&catid= s.asp?logon=&langid=EN&catid= s.asp?logon=&langid=EN&catid=10485

Backing Up to a Hard Drive  Essentially a very large USB/thumb drive.  Very high capacity; you can backup everything easily.  Much more reasonable cost than they used to be.  Again, if something tragic happens, it goes too!  ?catid=23795&mfr=&logon=&langid=EN&list=& page=0&sort=3 ?catid=23795&mfr=&logon=&langid=EN&list=& page=0&sort=3 ?catid=23795&mfr=&logon=&langid=EN&list=& page=0&sort=3

Backing Up to GPU or Other Remote Location  Allows you to back up to an “off site” location.  Can access data from anywhere that has an Internet connection.  Only holds 1 GB of information and that’s including all of your U of A mail.  Can set up a separate one-on-one session to set this up.

Resources  FAQ.org: Introduction to Backing Up   Wikipedia: Backup   Help with PC Guide to Backing Up  /back-up-backing-up-guide.htm /back-up-backing-up-guide.htm /back-up-backing-up-guide.htm