Backing up your PC is vital – and easier than before

Published 9:00 pm Monday, October 11, 2004

Backing up your PC is one of those things, like eating right or changing your oil on time, that everybody knows they’re supposed to do, but too few people actually carry off well. For years, computer experts have warned users to back up their hard disks regularly, and for years, most people have ignored them.

That’s because making such copies traditionally has been boring, laborious or expensive, depending on the method.

But backing up your precious data is more important today than ever. Computers always have been fragile, subject to crashes and failures. Now, they are also the target of massive attacks by hackers, virus writers and other digital criminals. These assaults can corrupt or destroy your files – including digital photos and music – or force you to reformat your hard disk, which also wipes out files.

So what backup system will protect against such losses and still is easy enough to use so that people will do so regularly? I recommend buying an add-on hard disk, and using automated backup software to copy data from your main hard disk to this backup drive on a regular schedule.

To overcome user resistance, any backup method must be simple, unlikely to run out of space and automated. It also should operate unattended, on a schedule, without requiring any manual action by the user.

That rules out manually copying files to blank CDs, DVDs or other types of removable discs. This method may work for some fastidious folks, but for most people, it requires too much manual effort to be effective. And you easily can run out of space, or blank discs.

Another method, subscribing to a service that backs up your data automatically over the Internet, has the advantage of being automated. But it can be expensive, and the Web-based services rarely offer enough space to back up most of the stuff on today’s huge hard disks.

But the extra hard-disk method, if done right, provides plenty of space, and it can be completely automated and surprisingly economical. You don’t even have to open up your computer or install anything internally. It’s easy today to buy an external hard disk that plugs into a Windows or Macintosh computer via the USB 2.0 or FireWire ports.

Here’s how I back up my own Windows hard disk: I purchased a 40-gigabyte hard disk – the external plug-in variety – for less than $100 after rebates. I keep it plugged into my computer. I also purchased online, for $35, a small program called SmartSync Pro from a company called SmartSync Software at www.smsync.com.

Every night at 2 a.m., the software springs to life and synchronizes key folders I designated on my hard disk with identical folders on the backup drive.

My method works well for me, but it may not be right for everyone. I did have to buy the drive and software separately. And the SmartSync Pro program isn’t as simple as it could be.

So I recently tested a simpler, all-in-one hard-disk backup solution, the OneTouch II, from Maxtor. This product consists of an external plug-and-play hard disk, which can be connected to either a Windows or Macintosh computer via USB 2.0 or FireWire. It includes simple, effective backup software that can be launched with the touch of a button on the hard disk. The software also can be run automatically, on a schedule.

The OneTouch II now comes in only two large and expensive versions, a 250-gigabyte model for $329 and a 300-gigabyte model for $379. They are bigger than most average users need, but the company says it will offer smaller OneTouch II models, at lower prices, early next year.

The key to the OneTouch II is the included backup software – a special, simplified version of Retrospect, a well-regarded backup program from Dantz Development. The program can automatically back up your whole hard disk, or only selected folders and files.

In my tests, on a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion PC, the OneTouch II installed quickly and easily, and the software worked fine. My only complaint was that the initial backup was very slow. Backing up 51 gigabytes took more than 12 hours. Subsequent backups, which only copied new or changed files, were much quicker. I deleted a couple of test files and was able to restore them rapidly from the backup disk, using the backup program’s “Restore” function.

OneTouch II is a good product. But whether you buy this all-in-one solution or get an add-on hard disk and separate software, backing up your data to a second hard disk makes great sense.

Walter Mossberg writes about personal technology for the Wall Street Journal.