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About Backup ...... Flash Drives (or thumb) Below the line on this page are the options dating back to 2002 or 2003 when I started this site. Now I recommend backup using simple windows methods: drag & drop, or copy and paste. And this is where USB flash drives are so wonderful. Windows XP & above just automatically install them (usually) and then it's just a "window" ..a folder .. you can put things on. If you want to keep my documents backed up you can open it, select all, copy. Then through my computer you can find the flash drive (or camera card) ..open it & paste. If you've done it before the window asks to overwrite and you say YES!. I heartily recommend learing these windows basics because you will use them over and over in everything you do from email to letters to browing the net. Flash drives come in all sizes from 32Mb (which I've used for dedicated accounting backups) to 8 or more gB (gigabytes). I've also recently added extra external hard drives for those of you with large music, photo & video collections. These range from 40gb to 80 or for heavy users like me, a not so portable 300 gb drive accessible from my home network.
Floppy disks, Zip drives, Tape Backup or CD-Writer? Floppy disks: Great if you don't have too much data stored on your hard drive. And also great if you know how to get around your hard drive and find your data. If not, consider a different type of backup. Soon to come: I'll list here the most common places to find "data " for backup. This would be AOL download folder, address book and favorites. It would be your Microsoft Internet Explorer (or Netscape) favorites or bookmarks. It would be your Outlook Express or Microsoft Outlook or Netscape Mail folders and address books. It would be "My Documents" where Microsoft Office and Windows hope you'll store everything you create from letters to Outlook contacts to pictures. But if you use MSWorks, Corel WordPerfect or Lotus, your documents may be more buried and scattered. Zip Drives: If you have a small hard drive, you can back the whole thing up on 100 Mb disks. Small being less than 2 Gigs with a third of that used. These drives are inexpensive ($99) and arent' too awkward to use. Again though .. if you have a large hard drive (6 Gigs and up), you'll want 500 Mb disks and now the drive is more expensive. At this point I recommend a CD-Writer. Tape Backup: I recommend this for offices where data must be backed up frequently and quickly and where restoring the data might be rare, only in the event of a hard drive failure or system failure. The disadvantage of a tape backup drive is that it relies on the software that comes with it to create files that are not accessible through the windows explorer for drop and drag restoring or copying. CD-Writer: This is my preferred backup method although it is not for every one. The expense of this drive is most justified if you work with images via a scanner or digital camera or online development such as Kodak. (See my Photos page for more on online photos.) It's also essential if you download and collect music files from the Internet. I hope to get my son Davey to maintain a page at this site on Napster, Real Jukebox, Mp3 files and collections.
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