Backup File/Folder on Windows XP

Backup, Why?
A computer and its components will, eventually, fail. When it does, there is a possibility that all data will be lost. The cost to replace the hardware of a computer is easily estimated. However, the price of the lost data, on the other hand,can be invaluable.
Therefore, it is important to establish good habits to backup the contents of a computer. This section discusses several methods of accomplishing this.


File/Folder Copying
This method backs up files and folders that are important to you, but essentially leaves the rest of the system prone to data loss. This method is suitable only if it is easy to reconstruct a computer with all the operating system and application components intact. For example, in many commercial settings, a workstation is merely a clone of a master workstation, which makes the reconstruction of the operating system and application programs very easy.

In order to backup files and folders, it is important not to use the same storage medium as the main “online” ones.
In other words, the backup version of files and folders should be stored on removable media of some kind. In the past, it is common to floppy disks for this purpose. It is particularly tedious to use floppy disks due to the very limited capacity.
Nowadays, external USB or SATA (serial ATA) hard disk enclosures are common, and hard disks are getting very inexpensive. For non-critical backups, an external hard disk enclosure can be used. As we will discuss later, however, it is best to have multiple external hard disk enclosures for more critical backup.
To backup files using this method, all one needs to do is to copy files and folders from the main “online” drive(s) onto the backup drive(s). Compression is optional to save space. Windows XP has the ability to compress files and folders.
To compress a file or folder, select it in Windows Explorer, then:

•  right click the file
• ˆ select “Properties...”
• ˆ in “General” tab
• ˆ click “Advanced”
• ˆ check “Compress contents to save disk space”
• ˆ if you are compressing a folder, you can let Windows know whether you want to compress everything in the folder

Note that you can copy files and folder into a CD or DVD recording drive (that has a blank medium inside). This lets you back up files directly onto recordable or rewritable CDs and DVDs. This method is superior for backing up bulky files such as video clips and digital pictures.

Windows Backup

The previous method is great for backing up a file user files and folders, or even gigabytes of images and clips. However,it does not back up important operating system files, application program files, nor special registry files.

As it turns out, there is no need to purchase a commercial backup program, as Windows XP includes one, even in XP home. However, it is normally not installed when you install the operating system. Visit http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/for a quick tutorial.

Once it is installed, you can access the program using the following path:

• ˆ “Start” button
• ˆ “All Programs”
• ˆ “Accessories”
• ˆ “System Tools”
• ˆ “Backup”

When you start the program you can select the wizard mode or the advanced mode. Let’s start with the wizard mode. The next screen asks whether you want to back up or restore files. Select “Back up files and settings”. Then,the wizard asks what you want to back up. Here’s my take of the options:

• ˆ “My documents and settings”
  This option is useful if you only care about your own documents and settings, assuming everything else is backed up by some other means, or that the system can be reconstructed fairly easily. This option is most applicable for computers at a work place, where IT staff are responsible for the general well being and maintenance of computers.
• ˆ “Everyone’s documents and settings”
  This option is useful if you are performing maintenance of your own computer, either at home or at work. This option is most applicable when the system is already backed up using the next option, and there has been no change to the operating system or application programs since it was backed up using the next option.
• ˆ “All information on this computer”
  This option backs up everything. It is useful if you are maintaining your own computer. Note that this can take a lot of disk space on the backup medium, and it can take a long time. You really don’t need to perform this step every day. My recommendation is to perform this step once after you patch the system, or after you install additional programs. After that, you can use the previous option to perform incremental backups.
• ˆ “Let me choose what to back up”
  This option gives you the most flexibility. It allows you to select exactly what to back up. Use it with care,however.

The next screen asks how you want to store the backed up files and folders. Unless you have a dedicated backup tape device, you can only use files. You can, however, choose the medium for backing up your files. The default is “Floppy(A:)”, which is impractical for most purposes. You can choose a drive letter that corresponds to an external hard disk enclosure. The last text box lets you choose a name for the backup.
I always prefer to use long and meaningful names. For example, “whole 20051105” means the backup is for the entire computer, and it was created on November 15, 2005.
Unfortunately, you cannot specify a recordable DVD or CD drive. If you want to backup data on DVD or CD media, you’ll need to create a regular file first, then burn the file onto DVD or CD recordable media.
Note that if you use this method to back up a system, you need to take care when you restore a system. Windows XP SP1 (service pack 1) changes enough of the system so that a pre-SP1 fresh XP installation cannot properly read the backup of a post-SP1 system! If you somehow destroy an installation of Windows XP, and need to restore from a backed up version, you’ll need to perform the following:
ˆ

•  reinstall Windows XP from the original CDs
• ˆ download and install SP1
• ˆ install the backup/restore utility programs
• ˆ restore files

Ghosting
Ghosting is the process to create a back up image of an entire partition (and not of individual files). This option often requires special tools, such as Norton Ghost or similar software. While there are advantages to this approach, there are definitely disadvantages:

• ˆ To restore a ghost, the target partition must be physically identical to the original, down to locations of bad sectors.
• ˆ It is impossible to perform incremental back up images.
• ˆ For a large hard disk, this operation can be very lengthy due to the lack of incremental back up.
• ˆ Restoring an image on a different computer can cause problems, as the registry contains entries that are specific to the hardware configuration of a machine. Particularly, the SID (security identifier) of each machine is different.

The high end commercial products can handle these problem with little or no fuss. However, most off-the-shelf tools do not handle these problems well. Those who are frugal and advanturous can try out free programs for ghosting:

• ˆ NewSID: This is a program to handle the SID problem associated with restoring a ghost image on a different computer. Visit http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/NewSid.html for more information.
• ˆ DriveImage XML: This is a free program for ghosting a partition. Visit http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm for more information. Because the image of a partition is saved as an XML file, I suspect the file gets large very quickly.
• ˆ Partition Saving: another hard disk cloning tool. Visit http://www.partition-saving.com/ for more information. This program does support image splitting so you can fit the image of a partition onto multiple CD or DVD media.
• ˆ PartImage: this is a Linux-based program for cloning partitions. This tools has many features, and it comes with a license that allows its free use in commercial settings! Visit http://www.partimage.org/ for more information. This tool also supports partition splitting.
• ˆ SystemRescueCD: this is not a single program, but rather a bootable CD for all kinds of disk related maintenance,including ghosting and cloning. It is Linux and free software based, so you can use this in a commerical setting. Visit http://www.sysresccd.org/or more information.
• ˆ Ultimate Boot CD: this is similar to SystemRescueCD, but includes even more tools that are not Linux-based. Visit http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/ for more information.

Important Notice! Even if you can clone an installation of Windows XP from one computer to other computers, it violates the EULA (end user licence agreement) of Windows XP! All the methods described in this section should be used only for backing up your personal system in case there is a need to restore it. If you don’t want to be tangled in legal issues, be sure to read the EULA of Windows XP before cloning a partition that contains an installation of
Windows XP. I will not be responsible for any results of wrongful use of the tools mentioned in this section, or in this entire book!
A link to the EULA of Windows XP is here, http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/eula.mspx

Hard disk or CD/DVD?
Regardless of the method, you need to choose a medium for storing the backed up file/folder/partition. Except for system administrators of relatively large installations, the practical choices boil down to removable hard disks and recordable CDs or DVDs.
Assuming that disk swapping has no cost, we can compute the cost of each approach. At this point, a 300GB hard disk is approximately US$100. A finished external hard disk costs about US$150. This means the cost of data is about US$0.50/GB.
A stack of 50 4.7GB recordable DVDs is about US$30. This means the cost of data is about US$0.13/GB.
Using this calculation, recordable DVDs are less expensive. However, the advantage of a hard disk is that it is
rewritable. Once a hard disk solution has reuse the data space four times, the amortized cost of data becomes the sameas DVDs.

Before we conclude that removable hard disks are the way to go, let us consider several factors (in addition to cost). First of all, using a single removable hard disk to back up data is like putting all the eggs in the same basket. If a hard disk fails, it is unlikely that only certain files are lost. More likely than not, all data on the disk is no longer accessible (unless you pay lots of money to have someone recover that data).
Consequently, storing a series of back up files/folders/partitions on the same hard disk provides little additional protection against hard disk failure. On the other hand, one-time-recordable DVDs are fairly durable in normal conditions.
Once recorded, most recordable optical disks (CDs and DVDs) can safely retain data for 10 to 25 years. This time can be extended by environmental control, such as lowered temperature, the lack of light and the lack of oxygen.The other factor to consider is that copies on a hard disk need to be erased at some point. This means the capacity of a removable hard disk limits the history of backed up data. This may not be a problem for most people, but it is critical in many businesses to be able to track documents from ancient past. The CD/DVD approach can preserve data of any length of history, limited only by the amount of space available to store the media.