Spring Cleaning IV: Put It Into Storage
Following up “Maintaining Your Hard Drive”, we present chapter 4 in a series of helpful Spring Cleaning tips and hints to make sure your computer (and your data) is optimized, organized, and secure.
Many a time, we’ve answered this dreaded phone call: “Hi, I just heard a clicking noise on my computer and now it won’t boot up.” We’ll come to the computer, confirm the hard drive has died, and find out there is no backup of the data on the hard drive. The look on a customer’s face when we reveal we may not be able to restore any of the data is one of stunned panic.
We don’t like that look, and we know you don’t either.
Third-party services do exist to extract and restore data from a failed hard drive, but costs can approach several thousands of dollars per incident.
There are several easy methods to backup your data, including low-cost external hard drives, CDs, DVDs, USB Flash drives, and network file storage.
Several methods are available for backing up University data:
Network Servers: Most employees on campus have access to a “home directory” (usually the H: drive or M: drive). This directory may be limited in terms of available space (especially if your GroupWise Archive files are stored there), but the space is usually off-limits to co-workers and regularly backed up by network administrators. You may also be able to store files on other network drives, such as department “common” drives.
CD and DVD Backups: All University computers ordered within the last several years are equipped with CD and/or DVD data recorders. You can store about 700 MB of data (equivalent to about 480 floppy disks) on a data CD; if you have a DVD recorder, you can store the equivalent of several data CDs on one data DVD disc.
USB Flash Drives: USB flash drives are small storage devices for saving and transferring data between devices. Currently you can buy them in sizes up to 4 gigabytes (about 6 CD’s worth of data).
External Hard Drives: Small external, portable hard drives are available for adding extra storage or backup capabilities to laptop or desktop computers. These drives can accommodate a huge amount of file storage, often doubling or tripling the amount of storage space of your entire desktop computer, and start at around $100. Most external hard drives these days can do an automatic backup at a scheduled time each day, or you can manually backup your machine at the touch of a button.
We strongly advise against zip drives and floppy disks for backup of critical data. Zip disks are outmoded, quite expensive compared to other available alternatives, and are prone to failure from static electricity or magnetic fields.
Investing a few minutes of time each week backing up your critical data can save your bacon if you should ever experience a hard drive failure. Keep in mind “backing up your data” does not mean backing up all of the files on your computer; software such as Microsoft Office can always be reinstalled in the event of a hard drive crash. “Critical data” refers to the files and documents you or your department could not do without in the event of an unrecoverable hard disk failure, such as Microsoft Office documents and GroupWise archive items.
Whatever your backup method of choice, use it! Don’t lose countless hours (or days, weeks, or years) of work because of a hard disk failure.
Have questions? Need assistance? Call the OIT Help Desk at 426-4357, or contact us via email at helpdesk@boisestate.edu
