Windows File Management

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How to Back Up Your Work

You may need to back up a single document, or a group of files. Here's how:

A single document

When you're working on a document, save a copy in a separate place from the first one. If it's a work-in-progress, change its name so you save a series of versions.

• dissert-01-03-11am.doc
• dissert-01-03-food.doc
• dissert-01-03-caths-dropped-by.doc
• dissert-01-03-finish.doc

Never save an only copy to a memory stick - they're too vulnerable and when they do go bad they do so at the turn of a coin.

A collection of files

Use Windows Explorer, make a folder on a different disk from the original, call it 'backup', and copy the folders containing the files to the backup folder. You need to repeat the excercise from time to time.

It's worth spending a few minutes with the rest of this link ...

Saving Work - Best Practice

When you work on something, take control, and make backup copies as you go - you'll work better without that nagging feeling that something's about to go badly wrong - particularly if you're saving work to a floppy disk. The latest hazards to these are mobile phones, and things with magnetic clasps ... before saving something to a memory stick, ask yourself:

'Can I just keep this on my network drive and copy it to a memory stick when I need to take it home?' - i.e. Do you have to keep the file on a memory stick?

Good practice - keep two copies of something important - and keep at least one of them on your network drive ... choose 'File/Save as' and then your network drive.

• At Bath Spa University, keep your current work on your network drive - if you need it at home, email the file to yourself - you'll have a backup copy in 'Sent items', or if you put it on a usb stick, make sure the original stays on a network drive. Change the file name from time to time, so you'll have a previous waymark to fall back on if something unpleasant happens.
• If you need more on where to save files ... follow that link!
• You can use Windows Explorer to copy or move files one at a time, or in groups - perhaps to back them up ...

Especially for Bath Spa University's staff ...

Do you keep 'only copies' of anything on your 'C' drive? Remember the way these fail. Not like vehicle engines which can usually be fixed. Hard disks suffer from infrequent but catastrophic failures - infrequent means that you might not hear about this until it happens to you or someone close to you.

Recovering the data after one of these is often impossible without great expense. Guard against this by saving backup copies of work you value to your network drive (your 'S' drive):

Your 'Internet Explorer' favourites

Make a copy of C:\Documents and Settings\{YourId}\Favorites and save it to your network drive.

Files you save to your desktop

Copy anything valuable from C:\Documents and Settings\{YourId}\Desktop to your network drive

Your 'My documents' folder

Again, make a backup copy of anything you need not to lose from your 'My documents' folder to your network drive

If you need to know how to manage files, come along to any of my ECDL workshops - you don't have to sign up to the entire course to follow a single module which will explain how to find, move and copy files.

A Cunning Plan

If you're working on a long piece of work, every so often, change the name of the file - do this, say:

dissertation_mon.doc

Five hours. It's all mapped out. That went well.

dissertation_tues.doc

I'm ahead. The weather's picked up again and the trip's back on. I can spend tomorrow at Jo's after all, and finish off on Thursday

dissertation_thurs.doc

What a nightmare. The British weather? Talk about too much sun. First they actually phone me. Then *work's* fridge trashes *my* disk. If I hadn't had that Tuesday copy elsewhere, today would have been a choice between * * * * *  standing on my throat, or a life sentence in the open access rooms ...

Traps

Things not to do, and safeguards against
the time when you do them nevertheless.

Computer files have a precarious existence. Nothing short of a serious fire or a waste disposal unit will destroy a paper copy, but computer files can vanish in a trice. There's more on this further down the page, but first ... here's a 'Don't'!

Don't save your work to a folder on the 'C' drive that has your user name. There's always one, and it looks as though it belongs to you, but it can actually belong to the operating system, and the contents can vanish when you log off.

Is this a bit daft of it? Yes! Have I been caught out in this way. Yes!

Saving your work when something's gone wrong

If the network's gone down and you can't get at your workspace - you can still save your work to a usb stick: but don't ever rely on a single copy of anything, especially on a usb stick ... some random event is itching to erase it.

Follow this or there will be ... trouble ...

Use these four safeguards for your work.

1. Save your work to your network drive as you go. When you make changes you want to keep, most applications allow you to hold down 'CTRL' and press 'S' to quickly save your work - much easier to do this than finding 'File' and then 'Save' with the mouse.
2. Save a spare copy of something you value - give it a different name. Many 'Lost documents' are lost when their owner accidentally does a large edit and overwrites good info. with white space.
3. Back up your work. If you've saved your work to your network space it's pretty safe. Once it's been there overnight, it will be in several 'Grownup' backups - with copies held at different sites. The University isn't liable for your work however, and as no system is 100% safe, it does no harm to save a spare copy of important work for yourself to a usb stick.
4. Saving a copy of work to a usb stick is fine ... as long as you have another copy somewhere else - don't rely on a single copy anywhere, let alone a usb stick.
   
   

Be a little paranoid at first and you'll sidestep a lot of unnecessary pain at some stage ...

Backing up files

A backup file is simply a copy of work you value kept somewhere safe - backups are a good idea and one which will really catch on one of these days ... you can sidestep much pain by making sure you have a recent backup of anything that you can't quickly rebuild. This helps you against the day that:

• Your file goes missing.
• Your usb stick goes missing.
• Your machine goes missing.
• Your storage goes wrong.
• The electricity supply fails when you've just started a file/save.
• You cut nine tenths of your 20000 word epic as part of a rearrangement of things, and save the file accidentally: the file still exists but you find your essay decimated.
• It's surprisingly easy to overwrite a good file with an empty or worthless one, at which point you will *need* a backup ...
  
  

To move and copy files, the tool you need to look for is Windows Explorer. Hold down the 'Flying Windows' key and press 'E'. The resource you're using now has a bit on using Explorer.

Backing up to CD

A data CD will hold about 650 megabytes of your files - that about ½ a million floppy disks worth, and a CD will hang on to them for years - brilliant for backups - BUT - they're shiny and fickle and you're better off using a network drive that's backed up by professionals.

For CD, You'll need:

CR-r disks

- they'll accept one 'write'.

A CD Writer

Borrow one from the Technicians perhaps - you'll need to plug it in to your computer's USB port, and install some CD creation software from a disk the first time you use it.

Back up your files

Use the software that came with the CD writer to choose a set of files to back up and then write these to the CD

Store your backup

Keep the disk safe, and preferably separate it from the machine from which you backed up the files

If You're Not a Natural Backer Upper ...

Human psychology being what it is, you may find that you lose work on computers at the worst possible time, perhaps before a deadline, as your stress level pushes you into doing something silly. If you're one of those liable to do this then:

1. Remember you're not in a minority of one with this tendency
2. Use self-knowledge and take avoiding action: sidestep the danger of losing work by making sure you save copies of stuff in a sensible way even if you wouldn't do this by nature.
3. Backing things up is easy and quick to learn.
4. It empowers you and gives you confidence to deal with IT problems.

If the worst has happened and a disk has gone bad, find a kind geek who's familiar with 'TestDisk' - or become familiar with it yourself.

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