Backup Philosophy for our Systems

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Introduction

The ability to Backup the system has always been considered an essential to any system on which our livelihood will increasingly depend in the future. A HP Colorado T1000E tape drive on an external port was added to the original (Dell P120) computer at an early stage and regular Full System Back-ups were made which include the Windows Registry. This took about 80 minutes including a verification of the tape. Incremental backups of files which have changed were made at more frequent intervals to keep up to date with only a few minutes tape time. This is fine for restoring back to where one was but assumes that the rebuild is on the same machine and that some system problem or virus was not present when the backup were made.

The new Dell P700 has CD writer built in which has now become our main backup device as it is faster, potential more reliable and is accessible over our network from all the machines. The CDs take about the same as a compressed backup tape.

Backups to CD are either by simple dragging of the folders to the CD in Windows Explorer or by use of the Windows Backup program which allows one to also backup the registry and compresses the files to save space. The Windows Backup program can be found in the Start Menu -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Backup. It has good help files and wizards so I am not giving full instructions on its use here - the problem is not how but planning what to backup!

Considerations for Rebuilding the system

Addition consideration has therefore been given to how to rebuild on another machine or from basics if the system is considered to be corrupt. This involves archiving of all the valuable documents, the program sources needed to restore the system and copies of the special configuration files (templates, fax covers etc) - in other words everything which has not been installed so it can safely be loaded into another machine. It is clearly easier to do this if the Folder Structure is set up with this possibility in mind. My Documents has therefore been augmented by four more top level Folders. Following the nomenclature of Windows 95 they are called My Programs, My Backups, My Teaching, My Web Site and My Images. Between them they contain all our documents and the files needed to rebuild the system - they can be Backed Up and Verified in about 30 minutes to tape or a little faster to CD.

The Folder Structure

My Documents contains most of the documents which need to be archived.
My Teaching contains Open University specific documents
My Web Site is the Folder containing the Masters from which the Internet site is uploaded and also it is used as the starting page for all the Browsers on the Desktop.
My Images contains Images from our Digital Video Camera and other associated images
My Programs contains the copies of the Downloaded Programs and the required files to install and set them up.
My Backups contains copies of configurations, templates, address books, dictionaries, favorities (bookmarks) etc. My Backup also contains copies of the Folders containing Drivers which were preloaded into the machine on delivery and backups of the HP95 and HP200 palmtops.
Exchange We also have a top level folder used for Email Folders and Address Books on the main machine and the Libretto laptop which has historically been called Exchange although Microsoft Exchange has migrated through Messaging to Outlook 97/98. Logically it out to be called "My Exchange" or "My Email".

These folders now live on Drive D: on our Dell P120 for two reasons, firstly we have a number of removable C: drives as well as a permanently installed drive D: , secondly have installed a network Drive D: on the Dell P120 is still the shared drive. If you have a simple configuration it is better to keep them all on the C: drive.

Should anything else be backed up?

For a few weeks make a conscious effort to think about the importance need for a backup of everything you do and use - the spell check dictionaries, lists of favorites, the templates and the data and configuration of all the applications and make sure they are being backed up. You may have to change where applications such as financial packages store data to ensure they are covered or include extra directories in your weekly backups. I have written a specific page about Howto Backup Email messages, Address books and Dictionaries largely for small firms where an address list and email messages are of vital importance

The Backup Timetable

Every Month plus before and after significant software changes in the system:

A Full System Backup which includes the registry on tape/CD - there may not be room on a single CD to also backup all the user ("My nnnnn") directories which then go onto a second CD. One should keep at least the Windows Directory, the Program Files Directory and everything else which is related to the the system on the same CD as the registry in case you have to do a complete restore. It is also a good idea to keep a full backup with registry on your hard drive if you have the space - it is no substitute for a backup to Tape/CD but could give a quick way to restore things IF the hard drive is still working. This is the set to allow you to restore your own machine then update your information from the following sets.

Every Week:

A Backup of all the data files (The My xxxxxx files plus email folders and address books) onto a Tape/CD-RW. You should make sure that you have everything to reinstall your system and applications and restore your information on another machine. In our case this set has got rather large and we have split off the programs needed to reinstall and update that set whenever we download or install new software.

Between other backups:

Carry out Incremental Backups of the files which have changed - after any major work. These are best scheduled for every other day and placed on the end of the weekly data file backup. This ensures you minimise loss of data between other backups.

Tapes/CD-RW s should be cycled through in order and some archived for much longer just in case you need an audit trail or you accidently ersae something and do not find out until the next quater or even year when you need it. The Tape/CD capacity should be sufficient to hold a Data files backup and a series of Incremental Backups on each tape. One Tape/CD must be held at a separate location in case of Fire, Flood or Theft.

Backing up the Libretto Laptop and Networked Machines

At any one time the home machine (strictly the shared drive on the home network) or the Libretto has the 'master' documents, Email folders, address books etc. and the other machine is acting as a backup. The transfers between them are done over a DCC parallel link or network connection. The backup to Tape/CD-RW has to date always been from the main machine but is less frequent when a recent duplicate of active documents exists on the Libretto.