Do you have trouble thinking of the best
methods to backup your hard drives? Well, hard drive backup does make for an
interesting topic - so that's why this article is here.
In this article, we'll look at three of the
best methods to backup hard drives and give you peace of mind, knowing your
precious data is safe and sound.
Some of the ways to backup hard drives include creating a
drive image (using specialized programs like
Acronis True Image).
You can also back up to another hard drive, CD or DVD. The
last option which is getting more popular is to do a backup online - using
dedicated 'cloud' services.
There are various methods to
backup hard drives
Method 1: Create A Drive Image
The first approach to hard drive
backup is to use a good backup software to create a disk image. Why is this one
of the best methods to backup hard drives? Well, because it is a tried and
tested method and all the big corporations use this approach as the standard.
A drive image is nothing but a detailed representation of every bit and byte in
your hard disk. Once you create a drive image, you're free to restore it to any
hard drive you want. PC just crashed? No problem. Restore the drive image into a
new hard drive. I like to create a drive image just after installing a clean
version of Windows XP. This allows me to restore and revert to a clean hard disk
image in case some virus or malware affects my PC.
Acronis True Image is a good program for creating a drive image. I've used it since the days of DOS, and it has proven time and again to
be at the top of its game. The latest version supports Windows XP and
incremental backups - meaning you can create on drive image snapshot and keep
adding changes to it.
Norton Ghost is a competing product which has garnered many awards too. I
haven't tried it out, but I certainly will, since many people have raved about
its performance and ease-of-use.
Method 2:
Backup To Another Hard Drive or DVD
Another best method to backup hard drives is to use another hard drive. What
do I mean by another hard drive? Well, you can simply copy your existing
important data to another hard disk in desktop PC. Another approach is to get an external portable hard drive and copy your stuff there.
Of course, you should understand that there are risks. The second hard drive
that you backup to may also fail. Some alternatives are to use DVD media
for backups as they are much less likely to fail compared to hard drives.
Method 3:
Use An Online Backup Service
Using an online backup service is also fast becoming one of the best methods to
backup hard drives. Essentially, these services allow you to store gigabytes of
data online for a fee.
The huge advantage of online backup services is that they are resilient to
disaster and theft. If you were to backup stuff on your own, then in the event
of disaster or theft, you lose everything. Online backup services, however, have
huge, clustered servers that are designed to withstand such calamities.
The downside of online backup services? Well, it would be the cost - however,
these are fast coming down with each passing day.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article has shown you the best methods to backup your hard
drive. Try applying any one of the above methods the next time you feel you need
to backup data. If you backup data in the above ways on a regular basis, I can guarantee you'll have a much smoother computing experience.
My favorite method for backup is
to create a disk image using a good software tool. Acronis True Image is such a
tool and gets my vote for being the best disk imaging programs out there.
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