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| System Backup 101 |
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Page 4 of 4 That leaves us with everything else on the computer and how to backup those files. We think you'll agree with us when we say a lot of the data on your computer doesn't need to be backed up. For example, a modern video game will occupy a few gigs of data, and even Microsoft Office occupies a few hundred megs. Since you should already have these programs on the original CDs, you only really need to backup files you created and want to keep. To do this we recommend a program that copies directories you specify at a specified time and has the ability to keep older copies for a specified number of days. It's also best if it compresses the directories using a commonly used compression scheme (zip or rar) but not it's own proprietary compression format. If you use a proprietary compression format, you're stuck with their software forever. Now that doesn't sound like a tall order in a program (schedule copy of directory, keep a few older copies, use common compression format) but you'd be surprised at how difficult it is to find a program that will do all of those well. We were using a program called Backup2001 and the author wants an outrageous $45 to register it. Considering games, with all their complexities, years of development and massive number of programmers usually don't even cost $45. So to sum it up, this is what we find most useful in a backup program:
Conclusion The only program we could find that met some of these criteria and didn't cost anything is TaskZip. It uses the zip format, you can schedule it, and it saves copies for a specific number of days. Unfortanily, you can't choose the level of compression and there's no way to tell how long a backup will take since it has no progress meter. However you can't argue with the price. So that's it: use Casper XP or other cloning program to clone the Windows partition, and a backup utility to backup files you've created. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           
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