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How often should I back up my computer?
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The honest answer? It depends.
If you’re responsible for backups in a small office situation, then nightly backups will generally be sufficient. If your system crashed at 3 in the afternoon, you’d only lose the work done that day.
On the other hand, if you work in an environment where critical data is constantly being collected or any amount of data loss could be catastrophic, then data should be backed up steadily during the day. This can be accomplished with continuous backup. Backing up data continuously helps you with fault tolerance.
If you’re talking about backing up your home computer, a weekly or monthly backup would usually be sufficient for most people.
A word of advice, unless you setup a scheduled backup, you’ll find that your weekly or monthly backups become occasional, or even not at all as most people will simply forget. Therefore make sure to use a backup software that has built in scheduling. |
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Can I set a backup to happen automatically?
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Sure, although ‘how’ will depend on your operating system and your backup media.
Windows XP and Vista come with a Windows Backup utility that uses a wizard to walk you through the process, or you can use the advanced mode to have more control over the process. You choose what you want backed up, where, and when, although you are limited as to choices.
You can also manually create your own schedules through the windows task scheduler.
You need to remember to make sure the backup media is available (and your computer is turned on) when the backup is scheduled to run. Select a backup software that is based on a scheduler that can run backups when you are logged off or your computer is in sleep mode.
Third party backup software, whether standalone or part of a backup media package, allows for a much wider variety of scheduling options than are offered by the Windows Backup utility, and can also do things such as backing up different types of data on different schedules. |
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How do I schedule a backup in XP?
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The Windows Backup utility can be found by going to Start/AllPrograms/Accessories/System Tools/Backup.
The Backup or Restore Wizard will walk you through the various steps of backing up your data. If you are using the wizard, you would set up a schedule by clicking on the Advanced button, rather than the Finish button. By clicking Next on the next screen, you’ll be taken to the When To Back Up screen. Choose Later, then click Set Up Schedule and follow the instructions.
Alternatively, once you start the Backup program, you can click on the Advanced Mode link, which will take you to the Backup Utility Advanced Mode screen, where you can click the Schedule Jobs button at the top of the screen. Click on any date on the calendar and the Backup Wizard will start. |
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Should I backup my registry on a regular basis?
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While the registry can be part of your regularly scheduled backups, the ‘regular basis’ for which you should always backup your registry should be very frequent.
Before you make any kind of change to your registry, you should make sure you have a backup. The reason why it's so important is because even small changes to your registry can make your entire operating system corrupted.
If need be, you can use the Windows System Restore Utility to undo most damage, but fiddling with your registry is not recommended. System Restore has been proven to be unreliable at times.
You can always use a system state backup available in many backup software which will include the needed registry state for a successful recovery.
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