A backup of your data is something you don't need often, but when you need it, it is critical. Many people break their backup data without realizing it. Here are some of the ways you can accidentally break your backup:

1. Don't test it -- Most backup programs are complicated, with lots of options that affect not only what is backed up, but how easy it is to restore. Add to that the possibility of the backup media being broken, and you have a disaster waiting to happen. Always test your backups by restoring at least parts of it regularly and checking that the restored files are identical to your live files.


2. Keep it close -- If the telephone pole outside your house is struck by lightning, your USB backup drive takes the same beating as your computer. If someone steals your laptop out of your car, they'll take the nice shiny backup drive too. A backup is useless if it is subject to the same risks as the original data. Try to keep your backup away from your live data.


3. Just a live copy -- Not all data loss is immediately noticed. You might find that you made thumbnails of all your photos last week and deleted the originals by mistake. A virus might have been changing your files silently over the past month. If you have only one copy of your files, and that was updated yesterday, there's no way to get the originals back. If you are evaluating a backup method, make sure that you choose one that allows you to restore previous versions of files.


4. Only changed files -- When you backup to CD, DVD or tapes, it usually takes too much time to do a full backup using multiple disks. It is much faster to just do a backup of the new and changed files. However, if you do not do a regular full backup, you run the risk of the original full backup becoming corrupt over time. Plus, a simple restore might mean restoring every single disk or tape you ever used to backup. That could turn a simple hour-long task into a multi-day ordeal.


5. Password-protect it -- Despite what you see in the movies, a well-chosen password and strong encryption is very, very hard to crack. If you AND your laptop are driven over by a bus, nobody will be able to get your files and photos back from your password-protected backups. Unless you have government secrets or incriminating evidence on your computer, it's much better to just leave out the password-protection.


6. Automate it -- Automation is good, but you need to check up on it. An automated backup system that fails without you knowing it can give you a false sense of security. This also ties in with password-protection: If you have a password-protected, automated backup, the chances are good that you will not remember the password when you need to restore.


7. Restore to original location -- Many backup programs have an option to restore your data to the original location, overwriting the files that are already there. This is a bad idea. If you need to restore some files, always restore them to some safe location and then compare them to the original files. Otherwise, you might end up with month-old files in place of your newest work.

Johan has spent too many hours doing backups and restores using overly complicated programs. He then created Abbackup, a program that does backups of large amounts of files, photos and music to CD-R and DVD-R, quickly and easily.With Abbackup's automatic refresh system, you only need to do a full backup once. To learn more about how it works, visit this page.

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