Backup Tips

Organising your files

  • Arrange the files that need to be backed up under one directory e.g. under “My Documents”. When your run the backup program select the folders to be backed up under “My Document”. Make sure you select all users folders – Windows XP/2000 creates separate “My Document” areas for each users.
  • Mail – Microsoft Outlook Express stores the mail archives in an obscure directory. Change the store directory as follows: Tools -> Options -> Maintenance tab -> press the Store Folder button and change the path to your backup directory e.g “My DocumentsMail”.
  • Games – Games programs tend to store the game settings where the program is stored e.g. under C:Program FilesNameofGameSaved games. Either add this to the list of folders to backup or find the “save game” setting within the application and change this to a folder under “My Documentgames”
  • The safest method of protecting data, is daily online backup. If you don’t do this, then use backup software to archive your data to file, CD or DVD – read more about backup software. You need to rotate the backup media and for added safety take the backup offsite. Ensure that the backup is password protected.
  • Use online documents such Google Docs this means that your documents are already stored online and can be accessed from anywhere. Google Docs allows multiple people to share and edit the same documents and spreadsheets. You can edit a spreadsheet and your collaborator can see the changes you make and visa versa. This will reduce the amount of data you need to backup withMozy and keep you within the free 2G storage package.

Using online backup

Decide on the amount of storage you need. With the Depositit Light product you get 250MB (compressed) storage, with the Standard package you get 2GB – this is far better value for money.

Decide what files are to be backed up online. If you select too much data, you will exceed your storage capacity and will be automatically upgraded. Data that is not current should be written to CD or DVD and stored in a secure place. You should make two copies and store one offsite.

Install Depositit on each computer or if the computers are on a network install Depositit on one computer and select the other computers via the “Network Neighbourhood”. Open the Depositit Backup Manager and create a backup definition for each computer e.g PC_bob, PC_jim etc. In the backup definition select the directories to be backed up e.g select “My Documents”.

The files from each computer under “My Documents” will be backed up to the remote server. When you want to restore data or retrieve an older version of a document, then select the “Restore” tab in the Depositit Backup Manager. Enter your password and you will see the data for each user e.g PC_bob, PC_jim. Users that have the password can access any document, so password protect private documents.

The users of one Depositit account may be at different locations (or even countries). This is ideal for Software or Web Developers to check in new versions of code. Other members of the team can access files once they have been uploaded. The data from the last 30 days is stored, so it is easy to retrieve older versions of code or documents.

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