by Phil Callihan and Larry Passo
As experienced users are well aware, regular system backups can save you hours of frustration. Windows 98 includes a fully featured backup utility, Microsoft Backup, at no extra cost. If you create and follow a regular backup schedule, you will be able to recover from the inadvertent corruption of the Windows 98 system Registry.
NOTE: If you use Help in the backup utility, you might see references to "Seagate Backup Exec." This is because Microsoft licensed Microsoft Backup from Seagate Software, the company that makes the Backup Exec product line.
Windows 95 included a backup utility as an optional component that was available during setup. Windows 98 includes Microsoft Backup, which boasts the following improvements over the previous version:
Microsoft Backup borrows interface elements from previous Backup Exec versions and the Windows 95 version. It includes the following useful features:
The backup process is fairly straightforward. Wizards (as shown in Figure 18.1) lead you through common tasks such as backing up and restoring data. Backup also makes use of different-colored graphical "check marks" to indicate whether you have selected an entire folder or just specific files within a folder (see Figure 18.1).
You select the files you want to back up by clicking on folders or specific files. After you make your selections, you can save them for future use by creating a backup job. A backup job is a collection of files that you select within the Backup utility and save under a particular filename. Having created a backup job, you can quickly back up that set of folders and files again by simply executing the previously saved backup job. This allows you to quickly back up or restore your data or programs without having to manually re-select the same folders and files every time.
FIG. 18.1 Microsoft Backup allows you to select what to back up: entire folders or specific files.
NOTE: Backup jobs also save any settings that are selected when the job is saved.
Note the different colors of the selection marks. A bright blue mark signifies that a file or entire folder has been selected (the Football folder and the 1996 Nat'l Champs Microsoft Word document, in the case of Figure 18.1).
Also note that all higher-level folders that contain the 1996 Nat'l Champs document have a gray selection mark. This signifies that only a portion of the folder's contents have been selected to be a part of the backup job.
Another useful feature of Microsoft Backup is its capability to verify your files as you're backing them up. You should always verify your files after backing them up. You configure Microsoft Backup to verify files by selecting the check box on the option screen shown in Figure 18.2. The verification process double-checks to make sure that the original files match the files actually saved to your backup media by reading it back after it is written. Unfortunately, this adds to the time it takes to run your backup job, but the peace of mind it provides is well worth the extra time. Consider the extra time cheap insurance for your data.
CAUTION: If Microsoft Backup cannot verify your files, it might be time to replace the media or clean the read/write heads in your backup device.
FIG. 18.2 You can configure Microsoft Backup to verify files.
As a further safeguard for your data, you should store your backup media in a safe place--preferably offsite. One option for storing really important information is to hire a data archival service. For a monthly fee, such a company maintains your backup media in an environmentally controlled area, and sometimes it even picks up your backups at your location. For most home users, a closet or bookcase is a suitable storage location. Just don't store your backups right next to your computer system, where the same theft or fire could destroy both your system and your backup data.
TIP: When deciding where to store backups, consider these potential dangers: electrical interference, temperature variations (including humidity), and theft. Balance these factors with convenience. Also, make a schedule for rotating your tapes between your computer and your storage area, and then follow it.
CAUTION: If you decide to store your backups in a safe, make sure the safe you use is certified for storing magnetic media. Most home "fireproof safes" are designed to protect only paper records, which can survive temperatures that will damage magnetic media.
The point of making backups is so that you can reverse the process and restore files to your system if you ever need to. The restoration process is very similar to the backup process. Microsoft Backup reads the catalog of files that have been saved on the backup media, and it allows you to choose which files and/or folders you want to restore. You can restore files or folders either to their original locations or to other locations.
Many users don't create an overall backup strategy until it's too late. A realistic strategy should take into account available backup hardware, how much time you're willing to devote to backups, and ultimately how much data you're willing to lose given a worst-case scenario.
You can perform three kinds of backups. Table 18.1 outlines them.
| Type | Description |
| Full Backup | Backs up every file selected. Marks files as having been backed up. |
| Incremental | Backs up every file created or changed since the last full or differential backup. Does not mark files as having been backed up. |
| Differential | Backs up every file created or changed since the last full or differential backup. Marks files as having been backed up. |
FIG. 18.3 Choose the type of backup you want to perform with Microsoft Backup.
If you select the All Selected Files option and then select the root of each hard disk partition, Backup will perform a full backup of every file on your system. Backup and restore procedures will be slower if you use this option because of the volume of data that has to be processed. If you select New and Changed Files Only, you also need to choose between the Differential and Incremental backup options.
A differential backup saves new or changed files to your backup device but doesn't mark them as having been backed up. This means that if you create a file on Monday and perform a differential backup that night, and then you perform another differential backup on Tuesday, the file will be backed up on both days even if it was not changed on Tuesday.
Using the same example, if you create a file on Monday and perform an incremental backup that night, the file will be backed up and marked as having been backed up. If you perform another incremental backup on Tuesday, the file will not be backed up unless it has changed (been edited) since the Monday night backup. This means that subsequent incremental backups will take less time to run, because only new or changed files will be backed up.
CAUTION: Although it takes less time to create incremental backups, it takes more time to restore from them. You might need to restore from several different tapes of incremental backups if you have to restore files that were modified on different days.
It's important to be realistic when creating your backup schedule. In a perfect world, we would all have lightning-fast multiple-gigabyte backup units attached to our personal computers that would allow us to do full system backups every day in a matter of seconds. But the reality is that system backups take time. On newer computer systems that have gigabytes of disk space, a full backup can take many hours. In addition, your hard disk capacity might be much larger than the capacity of your backup device, which can cause problems.
The following might be a good backup schedule for a moderately used home computer:
| Full System Backup (everything) | Once every other month, alternating sets |
| Data Backup (user files) | Once a month, alternating sets |
TIP: The idea of alternating sets stems from that annoying tendency of Murphy's Law to intervene when you need to restore important data. By alternating sets (Set A and Set B, Set 1 and Set 2, or whatever you choose), you ensure that you don't overwrite a good backup with a bad one. Multiple sets also help prevent the loss of data due to tape failure or other mishap.
If you create many files or create very large and detailed documents, the following backup schedule might be necessary:
| Full System Backup (everything) | Once a month, alternating sets |
| Data Backup (user files) | Once a week, alternating sets |
A backup strategy depends largely on how you use your computer and ultimately depends on how much data you are willing to lose in the event of a disaster.
For many users, system data changes infrequently--only during an operating system or application upgrade, for example. As a safeguard, you should back up your entire system before performing any major upgrade. For most users, personal data is much more important than application data. It's much easier to reinstall an application than to re-create personal data.
Organize your user files into subfolders in a common folder. This will ease backup and restoration procedures. It's much easier to back up one folder and its contents if you don't have to search through all your subfolders trying to find where you saved a particular file.
Assuming all your personal files are in one directory, you need to decide how often to back up that data folder. The advantage of backing up only data files is that these files are usually small compared to system data and program files. If you change data only once or twice a week, you might want to back up data only weekly or monthly. If you frequently change documents, on the other hand, you might want to back up your data files more often.
When deciding which files to back up, you should consider the priority of the following kinds of data:
Always maintain a reliable system backup. Fortunately, this data doesn't usually change very often, so you usually need to perform a full system backup only monthly or every other month. Although you should back up your user data more often, those backups are usually smaller than system backups and take less time.
During the last few years, backup devices have become an economical option for many computer users. Many types of devices are now available, with varying degrees of capacity and speed. When choosing a backup device, make sure that it will fulfill the needs of your overall backup strategy.
Many hardware options are available for backing up the data on your personal computer. Here are a few guidelines you can use when purchasing a unit:
You have many choices of backup media. Tape drives are the most common, but other options are available, depending on your specific needs and budget:
Microsoft Backup supports parallel, IDE/ATAPI, and SCSI backup devices. These devices range from external units that you can easily connect to your parallel port to internal devices that require varying degrees of knowledge for installation. Before you buy a tape drive, make sure you have the interface required to connect it to your computer system. Windows 98 supports tape drives manufactured by the following vendors: Conner, Exabyte, HP/Colorado, Iomega, Micro Solutions, Seagate, Tandberg, WangDAT, and Wangtek.
To install a tape drive, follow these steps:
TIP: Microsoft Backup saves files in QIC format. QIC stands for Quarter-Inch Cartridge, which is a popular type of standardized tape cartridge used for tape backups. Microsoft Backup can be used with tape units that adhere to the following standards: QIC-40 low density, QIC-80 high density, and QIC-117. Even if you back up your files directly to disc instead of to tape, the file is saved in QIC format. Before you purchase a backup unit, always check to make sure that it is on the Windows 98 Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).
You usually must format a new tape before you can use it to perform a backup. (If you don't want to take the time to format tapes yourself, you can purchase preformatted tapes.) To format or erase a tape, follow these steps:
TIP: Not all media need to be formatted. Some non-QIC formats are formatted automatically during the backup process.
TIP: You can save yourself time and effort by purchasing your QIC tapes preformatted. The time savings alone is usually worth the small additional cost of preformatted tapes.
If you perform consistent backups, you will have the tools you need to recover from both minor mistakes and computer disasters alike. The first place to begin is to perform a backup of your entire system.
To perform a full system backup, follow these steps:
FIG. 18.4 The Backup Wizard opens immediately when you execute the Backup program.
TIP: You can use a second hard disk as your backup device. Backing up your data to another hard disk is significantly faster than using a tape drive.
FIG. 18.5 The final screen of the Backup Wizard lets you view your choices before executing your backup job.
TIP: Be sure to give the backup job a name that sufficiently describes what the backup does. All of your backup jobs will appear in a drop-down box in the Backup program from now on, so a good descriptive name will prevent confusion later.
FIG. 18.6 As the backup job runs, a status screen provides you with up-to-date information.
The Windows 98 System Registry files are crucial to restoring your system in the event of a major hardware failure. There are two ways to back up these critical files. The first is with regedit.exe, which is covered in Chapter 19, "Working with the Windows Registry." The second is to use Microsoft Backup.
When you use the Microsoft Backup method, you have to take a few steps to ensure that the System Registry is backed up properly. To do so, use the following steps (see Figure 18.7):
FIG. 18.7 Make sure that you back up the Registry.
After you complete the steps, the Registry will be backed up whenever you back up the Windows directory.
As you learned earlier in this chapter, you can select specific folders that you want to back up. You select them in the What to Back Up section of the opening Microsoft Backup screen. A bright blue check mark appears next to files or entire directories that will be backed up. A gray check mark signifies that only a portion of a folder is selected for backup.
You also have the option of excluding certain file types from being backed up. This might come in handy, for example, if you do not want to back up temporary files or browser cache files.
To prevent a certain file type from being backed up, follow these steps:
FIG. 18.8 Microsoft Backup gives you the option of excluding certain file types from being backed up.
TIP: If the file type(s) that you want to exclude are not already registered, click the Custom Type button and enter the file extension that you want to exclude in the text box.
To execute a saved backup job, follow these steps:
An important feature of Windows 98 is its capability to automatically perform mundane tasks on a regular schedule. You can take advantage of this feature by letting Windows 98 remind you when it's time to run your scheduled backup.
To set up the Task Scheduler to remind you to perform a backup job, follow these steps:
At the specified time and date, Microsoft Backup executes automatically. You can then select the backup job you want to run.
CAUTION: Even though the Task Scheduler starts Microsoft Backup automatically, you must still run the proper backup job. The Task Scheduler only starts Microsoft Backup; it doesn't perform the actual backup.
It's simple to change your backup settings and options. Follow these steps:
Microsoft Backup gives you the ability to recover anything from a single file to your entire system.
To restore files to their original locations, follow these steps:
To restore files to a new location, follow these steps:
To change the restoration options, select the Restore tab from Microsoft Backup's main program window and select the Options button. In the Restore Options dialog box, the General tab displays the rules that Microsoft Backup will use when restoring files (such as what to do if the files being restored have the same names as files that already exist at the restoration location).
TIP: If you plan to restore the Registry from your backups, make sure that you have the Restore Windows Registry box selected on the Advanced tab of the Restore Options dialog box.
© Copyright, Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.
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