Arny Krueger wrote:


The first thing to remember is that backup isn't really backup unless the
media you backup to can be easily separated from the computer.


I fully agree, and for that reason, will eventually opt in all likelihood for
an external hard drive rather than any internal storage device for backups.


Most catastrophes that befall computers at best, put anything inside the
computer or semi-permanently attached to the computer at risk. Computers get
stolen, infected with viruses, burned, drowned, struck by lightening,
zapped by surges etc. If any of those things happen to your computer, at the
very best, any backup media or device that is inside or semi-permanently
attached to the computer is at risk.

Therefore, any truly effective backup system has to involve putting the data
being backed-up on some kind of computer media or device that can easily,
and is frequently removed from the computer and put someplace else. I
recommend keeping backups at work if the computer is at home, and at home if
the computer is at work. If you totally lose both your home and your place
of work you will probably be in such profound trouble that computer backup
will be very low on your list of priorities. Of course if your data is
really valuable, there are offsite storage services like Iron Mountain, etc.

For a file the size of your Paradox database and some relatively small
number of WP files, the first alternative to investigate is no backup
program all - just copy the files to some backup media you chose, whether
floppy, zip drive, CD-R, DVD-R, removable hard drive, or one of those
keychain-sized flash memory USB devices.

The first problem most people run into while doing backup, is dealing with
files that are larger than the media that you are using. You didn't identify
your operating system, but all varieties of Windows and DOS since DOS 3.0 or
so have included some kind of a program that will break large files up so
they can be spread over several pieces of media. The Backup program that
came with DOS 4 and every subsequent version of Windows has also included
some kind of file compression facility.


My operating system is Windows XP Home Edition. The computer is a Dell
Dimension 8200 with separate drives for floppy disc, CD, and DVD. The computer
did come preloaded with Roxio software for disc copying.

Since I mentioned compression, that brings up another ready alternative -
WinZip (shareware) and programs like it. If your Paradox file won't quite
copy to a floppy in one piece, WinZip will compress it by a factor of maybe
3 to 10 and now it will fit in one piece, and maybe several times over.

If your computer has a USB port then two newer kinds of backup device can be
used with it. One type I already mentioned - those relatively inexpensive
USB Flash memory devices about the size of a cigar butt. The other version
of this kind of thing is the USB interface external hard drive. You plug
them in even while the computer is running, the computer identifies them as
storage, and it's like your computer suddenly grew another hard drive. They
are generally capacious enough that most personal collections of computer
files can be fit onto them by means of simple copying. Drag and drop.

If your computer has a CD burner, then the CD burner probably came with some
kind of software that can be used to make CD copies of files that you want
to back up. CDs are relatively large so file compression and file
subdivision often need not even be used with them.

What do I do for backup? I've set up all my word processing, spread sheet,
database and finance programs so that their master files are in subfolders
of a single folder on a certain hard drive. That single folder of subfolders
is large enough that it takes a DVD-R to hold that entire folder, and that's
how I back it up. The folder is shared on my household network, and it is
used for all critical data on all of the computers on the network.










Thank you for a well-written, comprehensive series of suggestions, Arny.



Bruce J. Richman