By special request from a really great artist, person and friend. He’s a “Jack” of all trades, and a Master of at least one.  It’s not Skinhit, although the description fits him too. And no: I’m not going to name him/her/it.

OK. No one can ever place enough emphasis on this topic. Period. Anyone who has experienced an irreparable crash and didn’t have a backup knows this: It’s a “Do this or weep” thing.

Fact: Every hard drive will fail. It’s only a question of when. Fatal infection might come.You may very well lose everything you’ve painstakingly made, modded, saved, received….without hope of getting it back unless you do back your disk/s up.

So, I’ve divided this into:

1. OK, You’ve been bad and resolved to change. Preparations to make.
2. The equipment and software. What should I get? Freeware vs. Pay for.
3. OK. You’ve backed up your system. Don’t get cocky, it’s an everyday thing.

If I don’t stick to that strictly, you can call me names. Just make sure I don’t hear them. [insert wink here].

Preparations:

Run a full antivirus and antimalware scan on your disk using updated software, The “updated” part of that is critical. What’s the point if it’s weeks or worse, months out of date? You want to backup viruses, Trojans and/or other nasties? Of course not.

What software should you use? Malwarebytes, and a good antiviral – BitDefender, Kaspersky, Avira, etc. Not going to discuss that. It just has to get done.

By the way, you’d also darned well better have made a “Rescue/Boot Disk”, or a zip drive with the rescue disk and a separate “Tools Drive” as I like to call it which has fixit utilities on it. That’s a great thing to have for family, friends and neighbors who call you with “Help!” at the most inopportune moments.

So: If you don’t have a Rescue Disk, PLEASE make one now.

It really isn’t that hard: Windows will do it for you, and you should have made it when you brought your computer home from the store (or wherever), anyway after getting rid of the bloatware.

I used Acronis to make mine. Probably some of the freebies will do that too. I don’t use them, so don’t ask me which.

Acronis has an easy graphical interface that you can use from within Windows. It also allows you to create a bootable recovery CD with an almost identical graphical interface.

Backup Software:

Well, the first question is probably “Free vs. Paid for?”.

I believe that “You get what you pay for”, generally speaking. Otherwise, how could the paid for software exist in a market with plenty of freebies around? Product loyalty only goes so far, nowadays.

I recommend Acronis True Imaging Home 2011. Another "Pay for" is Shadow Copy Cloner ($19.99) which looks good. If you want to go freeware, Easeus or Paragon are probably the best of the lot, from what I read.

Whether you decide to invest $29.95 for Acronis True Imaging Home 2011 (and the Plus Pack free), or the free option, you’ll have to do some house cleaning though, before backing up. Don’t be lazy, as this pays off.

You will only have to update drivers and all your software (if you haven’t been doing that on a frequent basis) and run iolo System Mechanic (or its equivalent) before using your Acronis or freebie. Also, Archive all your Stardock programs through Impulse. You should refer to Island Dog's excellent guide on how to do it! Just make sure all the apps you're entitled to are updated and installed correctly (Shift+right click on the program in the "My Software" tab).

Q: So, I have to hunt around for allo these updates and patches? C'mon, Doc!

A: Nope. All you need is this free tracker app from Cnet.com:  Cnet Tech Tracker .

Q: Why?

A: Because you want security. The major attacks are now directed against software and browsers, not OS’s.

Most will tell you this isn’t necessary. It is.

Q: Why?

A: Because you want to be up to date, and after restoring, be ready to fly securely… not crawl, and be able to access the net securely.

Next:  If you have iolo’s System Mechanic Pro or the regular edition, update it and run it. Get rid of the Registry and system detritus (make a restore point before doing that); get rid of the temp files and browser histories, trim off the unnecessary Start Menu items. Empty the Recycle Bin. Get rid of the redundant dll’s.

Now, do a Smart Defrag (the name of the free software or a Defraggle) and choose the “Deep Optimizing” option. Defrag the Registry. Reboot.

Now you’re ready to Back your system up without wasting space on your external drive and you’ll be backing up a sleek, fast killer computer.

Look at it this way: When you move into a new house, do you want the new house clean, painted, all the electric and plumbing 100%? Of course you do. Also, do you want all the boxes put in the right rooms? Of course you do. Do you want all the boxes labeled with contents and which to use first, etc.? Of course you do.

Choices, choices:

The External Drive vs. The Cloud:

There are deals on storage all the time. Pop over to Newegg. Make sure to format the storage device for NTFS. Make sure it’s large enough to store what you have, and has room to expand. Also: If you’re using a USB/flash drive, HP has a utility to format it to NTFS:

http://tinyurl.com/yc42amj

for the “Tool Kit” I mentioned above and in other articles.

The real issue is “Where should I backup to?” (shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition, but just did). You have a choice: “Hardware or The Cloud”.

I personally like having my backup here with me ready to use. If you depend on the Cloud, that’s fine. You’ll need the “Boot/Rescue” disk anyway. I prefer the Cloud for extra storage of data files (non financial/non personal data).

If you’re nervous about Cloud Security, I’m not going to poo-poo that. Within reason, those are valid concerns. Just be consistent and make sure your computer is as secure as you want the Cloud to be.

“Where is the cheapest place to store my stuff?” Well, it used to be Mozy (was free). Not anymore. Now they charge.

Here’s an article that’ll give you all the info you need: http://tinyurl.com/47xf7nw . It’s broken down into ‘Free and Pay for’.

Now what?

If you’re like most folks you’ll think, “Thank G-d that’s done with!” and go on your merry way to play nicely with all the girls and boys on WC. Wrong.

As the late Billy Miles said, “But wait! There’s more!”.

“O noes!”, you reply.

Well, this is the easy and quick part. If you have Acronis (sorry, I don’t know which and if the freebies have it) you now have a choice to schedule backups or do them in “Continuous” (incremental) mode.

I figure the answer to that depends on how much RAM you have and how many apps you have running most of the time. Acronis doesn’t eat up significant system resources, however: “significant” is a relative term. You’ll have to decide for yourself, or as Sir Richard put it (in “The Last Crusade”), “Judge wisely.”

In truth? I prefer the continuous, or ‘incremental backup’ because (like most folks) I have more on my mind than backing up my computer. It remembers for me, all the time.

OK: That’s it. You’re free to go out to play.

Almost.

Please get busy with the backup. If you don’t, you’ll come to regret it.

“And you can take that to the bank.”