Is Your Data REALLY Safe?

From the desk ofMy PC Therapist: If you're like most PC users, particularly home users, your machine has a single hard disk formatted with a single partition (the "C:" drive) that contains absolutely everything - your data, your programs, your configuration, and your operating system (Windows). And, if you're like most PC users, you know you should back up your data - those Word documents and photo files - but you're probably not diligent in actually doing the backups on a regular basis.  I mean, the machine seems to be running OK and you haven't lost anything yet. The entire subject of data protection seems to elude most average users.  And for good reason:  performing reliable system backups is a very time consuming process requiring a well thought-out strategy and additional resources most PC users don't even know exist. Here are a few things to consider: You can use the old reliable file copy to backup your data files to CD or other external media (I'll bet you've done that already) but you cannot use a file copy to backup your programs, system configuration, and operating system.  These tightly integrated components live on your hard disk in very special places.  Copying them changes the structure and placement.  So if your disk crashes, you stand to loose Windows, all of your programs, and all of your settings. Systems today come with Windows and much of the software you use (and paid for) preloaded.  That means that you don't have a Windows CD or a Microsoft Office CD or any of those programs you've been using.  If you loose your hard disk, you have no way to recover this critical and quite expensive software. In order to backup the operating system, configuration settings, and program files, you need special disk imaging software that copies each track (a physical part of the disk) to an external device and can be used to restore that track data to exactly the right place on a new disk. In order to image a drive (acutally a partition) you need to run the imaging software under an operating system other than the one you're trying to back up.  You can't image the partition your running.  That means that you need a second operating system somewhere that contains (at least) the imaging software. An image of a partition will normally take as much space - or more - than the partition being imaged.  If you have a 120GB disk drive formatted as a single partition - the norm - you need at least another 120GB of storage to put the image in addition to the second operating system used to run the software. Creating an image of a partition can be very slow.  A 120GB imaging job that placed the image on a network drive on my server ran for over 12 hours.  Who wants to do that routinely? Why on Earth, Microsoft and the computer manufacters haven't come up with a better solution is beyond me, but they haven't.  And yes: there is a better way.  It's not necessarily pain free, but it's doable.  First, some additional considerations: Some of your data changes often - some not.  Word and Excel documents may come and go frequently and undergo lots of changes.  If you're an Outlook user, you're very well hidden pst file changes frequently. Some of you data never changes.  Pictures, music, and video clip, once placed on your disk, never change unless, of course, you're into editing them. Your operating system, program files, and configuration setting occupy a fraction of the total amount of space on your disk.  Microsoft, by default, places your data in the middle of the operating system and program files in a folder called "My Documents".  If you have lots of pictures or music, "My Documents" can be quite large.  Imaging the operating system partition, then, means including "My Documents" in the image because that's where Microsoft stores it. Here's a strategy that may work for you: Order and install a nice big hard disk.  This becomes your second - or slave - hard disk.  You'll need to partition it and format the partitions.  It should probably have space for a minimal Windows operating system (3GB), a nice big partition to store a disk image, and any other partition that may be useful (read on). Clean up your primary hard disk - temporary internet files, trash, whatever you can get rid of.  Then run a defrag to squeeze all of the data together leaving as much free space as possible. Install Windows on the new slave drive, configure it enough to get to the network, apply updates and make sure it works. Install disk imaging software and disk partitioning software on the new Windows operating system. Boot your system from the new operating system. Repartition your primary hard disk so as to minimize the size of the existing, old operating system.  Leave some room for new programs but realize that the new size will be a small prtion of the total disk. Create a new partition in the now available space (most of the total disk) to be used for your data files. Move "My Documents" to the new data partition using the special button in the properties window. Move any other data files to the new data partition.  One that comes to mind is the Outlook.pst file which is nicely hidden under C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outlook.pst.  For each of these that you identify and move, you'll have to reconfigure the software to look for the file in the new place, so keep track of what you're moving. Repeat steps 2, 5 and 6.  Now that all of that data is out of the way, you should be able to squeeze your partition down even further.  Again, leave some room for growth or you'll be doing this again. Image the primary operating system partition to the new backup partition on the hew hard disk.  This should take a reasonable amount of time since the operating system system is so much smaller. Now reboot using the nicely squeezed and imaged operating system and backup your data files using the old reliable file copy method.