Backup strategies for when (not if) your hard drive fails

A: While data backup methods have been discussed on this show before, they are important enough to warrant a review.

There are several levels of backups that will keep you safe in the event of a catastrophic event involving your computer.

The first level is to just make sure you have the files on your computer stored on a second medium-something besides the hard drive on your computer. A couple of good choices here are backing up to a CD, DVD or even an external hard drive. This will ensure that when your hard drive fails (notice I didn’t say if), you can always recover your important data from the CD, DVD or external hard drive.

An important addition to this backup strategy is to make sure you are backing up your data on a regular basis. Remember that after a disaster you can only recover as much data as is available on your backup source. If you are tech savvy enough, you might want to look into automatically scheduling your backups so you don’t have to remember to do it.

It should be noted that this backup strategy is not perfect. If a natural disaster were to strike your home, both your original and your backup would be lost. You can remedy this by storing your backups at work or at a family member’s house that lives far away from you. Or you could opt for the increasingly popular online backup services.

With an online backup service such as Mozy or Carbonite, all of the files on your computer are automatically backed up to a site on the Internet. This ensures that not only are your files safely stored on a second medium but they are also stored outside of your house in case of a natural disaster. Not to mention, with the automated backup process provided by services such as Mozy and Carbonite, the backups occur in the background automatically when your computer is idle so you don’t have to feel guilty for not remembering to do your backups.

This post was originally broadcast Friday, October 19, 2007 on Tech Talk with Noobie, a weekly radio show on WCBK 102.3 FM in Martinsville, Indiana. Tech Talk with Noobie airs every Friday between 11:30 a.m. and noon. If you have a question you would like Noobie to answer on the air, simply e-mail your question to .