Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Indentifying And Backing Up Your Data

Backing Up Your Data
This month’s article deals with the very important function of backing up your personal files from a Microsoft Windows computer. I will deal with this topic in more detail over the coming months but this month I will concentrate on how you can identify how much space you are consuming on your computer.

Data Locations
Most, but not all, of your personal files are stored under the My Documents folder. The folder My Documents is actually an alias for the true location on your hard disk. The actual location of my documents is Documents and settings\user name\ (where user name is your login name). Each user on a pc has a separate area where their personal files are stored.
To find out how much space your data is consuming on your system proceed as follows:
1. Click Once on My Documents
2. Right Click and Select Properties
3. Click on the General Tab and the computer will calculate the space used by your personal files.
The figures shown, once the computer has stopped counting, is the amount of space your backup device must have available to be able to create an effective backup of your data. This is only your personal information and if you intend to fully secure your pc you will need a device with a much bigger capacity. Some programs do not store information in the My Documents Folder so don’t assume by backing up this folder all your data is secure. My Documents contains all the files associated with your login name and usually contains a huge amount of internet files which do not need to be backed up.

Total Space Used On your Hard Disk
To see how much space is being used by all the users, the operating system and programs on your pc proceed as follows:
1. Double Click My Computer
2. Click on your hard disk (usually identified as Local Disk C: drive
3. Right Click and Select Properties. The computer will show you a graph of your disk together with Used and Free space numbers.
If your hard drive is almost full this usually spells trouble down the line. This is because a nearly full hard disk causes your computer and your hard disk to work extremely hard to provide services to you. This will inevitably lead to failure of the computer or the drive unless the problem is resolved.
Bottom line don’t stuff your hard drive to the top and seek professional help if your disk is overloaded. Next month’s article will continue with more information on backing up your data.