Backing Up Your Data

---

Stuff happens: hard drives crash, floppy disks 'bite the dust,' Zip disks suddenly stop working, and the network can crash just when you have time to work on your big paper. If you have a schedule of regular backups, these computing disasters will not have as drastic an effect on your work as they will if you rely solely on one place to save files.

Note to Campus-Only Users: For those who only use UMF-owned lab computers with the Campus H: Drive, it's still a good idea to back your files up. You can either create one folder in your H: Drive in which you save everything or you can work within the default structure we've set up for you (public.www folder, etc.) If you read this document, you'll want to "work backward" using your removable media as your insurance. In other words, build your primary file structure in your H: Drive and back these files up periodically to a Zip disk, CD, etc.

Where to Save Your Work for Easy Backups

Files of Reasonable Size
We recommend that you build your file structure in one folder such as My Documents and save your important files there. (Please see the section labeled Large Files for guidance on where to save them.) This is the only place that the UMF Computer Center employees will back up when they need to service a university-owned system or EXCEL laptop. Saving to one location also makes regular backups a snap - simply copy and paste one folder rather than multiple files.

Large Files
We recommend that you have a directory outside of My Documents to save very large files. This is recommended so that emergency My Documents backups can happen quickly and efficiently. We suggest that you copy your large files directory to some sort of large-capacity removable media as a backup solution.

Save Your Current Work Often!
Remember when backing up current files to your H: drive, you have limited space on your network drive. Students are allocated 20MB, and faculty are allocated 50MB.

1. Log in using your Campus ID.
2. Find My Documents by navigating to it using My Computer.
3. Right click on My Documents and choose Copy.
4. Find your H: drive by navigating to it using My Computer. Open your H: drive
5. Right-click in the window that shows the contents of your H: drive, and choose Paste. If your H: drive already contains a My Documents, the computer will ask whether it can overwrite the current one.

Save Other Files Once a Week

1. Find My Documents by navigating to it using My Computer.
2. Right click on My Documents and choose Copy.
3. Open My Computer, find either your Zip or CD-RW drive, and open it.
4. Right-click in the window that shows the content of your Zip or CD-RW, and choose Paste. If the Zip or CD that you are pasting to already contains a My Documents, the computer will ask whether it can overwrite the current one.

Where to Store Your Backups

Network Drive (H: Drive)

Note: Available on enabled computers on campus (CC Labs, for instance) and via eCampus H: Drive Access

All users with Campus access have a network drive (H:). Students are allocated 20MB of network space, and faculty members are allocated 50MB of space. In these days of huge media files, that is not much. We suggest that you reserve your network drive for your current projects only. Large media files (sounds, images, movies) and completed projects should be archived to large-capacity, removable media with such as Zips and CD-R/RWs.

Zip disks

Most desktop PCs around UMF's campus have internal 100MB Zip drives. Zips are a good archiving solution for folks who don't have huge media files. They have the additional benefit of being rewriteable and usable in UMF's computer labs.

CDs and DVDs

All computer labs at UMF and current EXCEL laptops have CD burners as a standard feature - some even have DVD burners. Even if your computer does not have a CD burner, you can easily burn your files to CD from a computer lab CD burner. CDs and DVDs are an excellent archiving solutions for those who work regularly with very large files such as sounds, images, and movies.

When Should I Back My Files Up?

Back up everything once a week. Back up current projects as frequently as possible to your network drive and removable media (CD or Zip). The other time to back your files up is before bringing your computer in for service or before making any major changes to it. Major changes would include software installations and reinstallations, adding new hardware to your machine, or doing any type of system work (defrags, etc.).

Our servers are backed up nightly. In the event something catastrophic should happen to your H: drive, we have incremental backups that can be used to restore your data (and everyone else's).