Chapter 29 -- Protecting Your Data with Backup

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Chapter 29

You don't have to use computers for long to know the frustration of losing data. It happens to everyone. Although Microsoft Windows 2000 can't prevent mistakes and accidents from occurring, Microsoft Backup, the backup program included with Windows, provides a form of insurance to help you deal with such misfortunes.

With Backup, you can back up files from your own hard disks or from network drives to a tape drive attached to your computer. You can also back up to a file on a hard disk, a network drive, or removable disks (such as floppy disks or Zip disks).

You can select individual files, folders, or entire disks to back up. And you can specify whether to include all files, only those that haven't already been backed up, or only those that were changed today. You can include or exclude the Windows registry, as you choose. When you need to restore files, you can view a catalog of backup sets that includes file and folder information, so you can select the files you want to restore.

To help you automate backup routines, Backup lets you save your backup selections. You can reuse a set of backup selections by simply selecting its name. And unlike the backup programs included with previous versions of Windows, Backup in Windows 2000 includes full scheduling capabilities so that you can schedule backup jobs to run completely unattended at regular intervals. Scheduling offers the full flexibility provided by the Scheduled Tasks facility in Windows 2000.

Backup is now the place to create an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD), which helps you get your system running again if key system files become corrupted or are accidentally deleted. Armed with an ERD, a current full-system backup, and your Windows 2000 CD-ROM, you should be able to recover your system in the event of a catastrophic system failure.