Your Image Is Everything Protection Against Computer Calamities: A Snapshot of Your Hard Drive
By Jerre,y Wagstaff Wall Street Journal July 28, 2006 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115401932056119282.html?mod=technology_featured_stories_hs A few weeks back, I wrote about the principles of backing up your data ("The way forward: Back up," June 16) and promised I would then tell you in more detail how to do so. But first, let's address the worst-case scenario: You lose everything when your laptop catches fire. (It happens -- trust me.) Then your concern isn't just losing the photos of Timmy's first steps; it's getting your whole life back. If your hard drive dies -- and it will, one day -- you will be looking for a way to restore things to as recent a state as possible. Backing up individual files is important, and something we'll go into later, but the cornerstone of your strategy should be having a backup of your whole computer. This is why the first step I want to tackle is the disk image: taking a snapshot of all the data on your hard drive and recording that snapshot on a separate device, whether it's another hard drive, or disks such as CD-Rs or DVDs. This isn't about copying files from one place to another, but using software that creates a kind of replica of what's on your hard drive, but compressed into a single file, which can then be restored should something go wrong. It's not particularly popular among nongeeks, because it can be rather challenging to do, but it makes a lot of sense. For one thing, the prices of hard drives have fallen precipitously. For another, the process has gotten easier and isn't as time-consuming as you might think: When I took a snapshot of my 40-gigabyte hard drive, it took about half an hour. The payoff is obvious: Even if your hard drive crashes, or weird stuff starts happening because of a virus, you can restore the backup image and you'll be back in action in a few hours. So how does one do this? Well, first you need the hardware. You need your computer, with either a CD burner or DVD burner attached to it. Or, even better in my view, a hard drive connected directly to your computer. (If it's a desktop computer or one of those laptops that have space for two hard drives, it can be inside. If not, the hard drive can be an external one.) Then you need the software. For Mac users, Carbon Copy Cloner (www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html; free, but donations welcome) has a good reputation. The most popular Windows program is Norton Ghost ($70 from Symantec Corp.), but I had problems launching it, so much so that I ditched it. Another promising-looking program, FarStone Technology Inc.'s RestoreIT ($60), also failed at the first hurdle -- installation problems this time. One that did work for me was Acronis Inc.'s True Image Home ($50), which has an acceptable interface and one of those wizard things that take you by the hand and lead you through the process. This makes it all quite simple: Select "backup" and then just answer the questions. These programs will then create what is called a disk image on your other hard drive or the CD/DVD. The image is one file, large because it's a snapshot of all your data, but quite a bit smaller than the data it is capturing because it's compressed. It will probably still be too big for any one CD to hold, and it may be too big for a DVD -- in which case the software slices the image file into smaller bites that can fit on each disk. Now you have a backup of your entire hard drive. Should something go wrong with the original, you can restore it to the state it was in when you made the image. But you need to take one more step first, so you can restore the backed-up version even if your main hard drive is no longer functioning: Create what is called a boot-up disk. This is (usually) a CD-ROM that, if it's inside your CD-ROM drive when you turn your computer on, will bypass your computer's hard drive and load the basic operating system files that make it run. This backup CD is your spare key to the computer. Keep both the disk image and the boot-up disk in a safe place. Now, it's important to note what these disk images are and what they aren't. A disk image will save all your files -- including your all-important program files -- from any disaster that may befall your hard drive. You're not going to be able to look inside the image file to retrieve individual files, should that be all you're looking for. It's all or nothing: You either restore the whole of your hard drive or nothing. They're also only as good as the time you made them: If you made a disk image six months ago, it isn't going to know what's been going on in your computer since then. Finally, a disk image isn't infallible. David Weinberger, a fellow at Harvard Berkman Center, a Harvard Law School project that researches the relationship between the Internet and society, uses them, but says they have sometimes failed on him. The reason can be anything from a faulty image file to flaky storage media. "Sometimes you can get the data back and sometimes you can't," he says. That's why you need to follow the ABCs of disk imaging: A) Do it as often as you can and, if you have the space and time, make two copies each time. B) If you're backing up to a hard drive and you can afford the space, don't overwrite previous images; if one of them fails, you'll still have another. If you're backing up to a CD or DVD this shouldn't be an issue; just make sure you include dates on the label. And, most importantly: C) Don't rely on any one system. A disk image is just your first line of defense. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
