Backup your data

Over the course of your university studies, How many assignments will you do?
If you had to put a dollar value on those assignments, What are they worth to you?

Consider for a moment - what if your computer crashed the day before an assignment is due,

How much is your data worth now?

Data backups are vital to ensure the security of the data on your computer in the event that it is corrupted by a virus, stolen or modified by a malicious hacker, or your computer has a hardware or software failure.

Data backups are best performed to removable media that can be stored separately from the computer. How far away and how many copies depends on how important the data is.

Listed below are some devices that are commonly used for backing up data.

• Writable CD (700MB) or Writable DVD (4.7GB) - writable drives standard in most computers
• USB flash drive (From 32MB up to 16GB+) - http://www.wlubookstore.com/computer/accessories.htm
• USB/Firewire/eSata Hard Drive (very large storage capacities)
• 1.44MB floppy disk (1.44MB)
• Iomega Zip Drive (100MB, 250MB, 750MB) - http://www.iomega.com
• Imation External Solid State Drives (1 TB) - http://www.imation.com

Visit The Laurier Bookstore for all your backup needs.

Most backup storage devices have software that will compress your data so that more data can fit onto the backup media.

All of the Windows operating systems come with a utility called Backup and it is located in the Programs > Accessories > System Tools menu

If you cannot locate the Backup utility it may not be installed.

To install Backup, use the following steps:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Add/Remove Programs.
2. On the Windows Setup tab, double-click System Tools.
3. Click the Backup check box to select it, click OK, and then click OK.

Other compression utilities available for free evaluation:
WinZip - http://www.winzip.com
PKZIP - http://www.pkware.com

Note: Remember, BACKUP YOUR DATA!