It’s a simple fact of business life: Disasters happen, both in the physical, real world… and in the computer world, too. In the case of a physical disaster, you have insurance to replace anything that might be damaged or lost. But what about the information stored on your business or home-office PC? For many small businesses and SOHO (Small Office / Home Office) professionals, computer-based information is often the backbone of the business, and may be the most valuable asset the business owns. The corporate, high-tech for that data is “mission critical” information. You need to protect yours, and “backing it up” is the easiest, most efficient way to protect your business’s valuable information. Of course most business owners (and home PC users) know the concept of data backup and recovery, but how many actually do it?
This series of posts will discuss the various kinds of information stored on a computer, and what types need to be backed up. There’s a ton of information stored on every computer, but the good news is, only a small percentage falls into the category of “mission critical” and needs to be backed up regularly. I’m talking about information that changes on a day-by-day basis. For example, as new clients are entered into your system, or new products are entered into your inventory, you want to keep track of those on an ongoing basis. As your financial records change every business day, it’s important to keep those records backed up as well.
The good news is, Windows-based computers store all this information in one central folder. Folders are the containers the computer uses to store information. Storage devices such as the internal hard drive contain numerous folders and subfolders, and each of those can be used to store program information or what’s called “User Data.” In a word (or two), user data is the “stuff” you create. No matter if it’s a document you typed, a pictures transferred from your digital camera, or a song downloaded from an online store, its’ all “user data.” A folder can contain subfolders or files, or both.
In the newest version of Windows, (Win 7), all the user data you create is stored in a folder called Users. To find it, click the Windows “Start” button, then look at the upper-right portion of the two-column layout. Usually, the upper most right item will either be your user name, or some other name that was put there when the computer was first started. It may be something like Owner or Administrator. Clicking on that folder will show all the different subfolders in your user account. You’ll see folders such as Documents, Pictures, Music and more. Of course the most important thing to backup is the Documents folder but you may also want to back up Pictures, Music and other folders in that user folder.
