By Gene Barlow
User Group Relations
Copyrighted November 2011
This past week, my computer failed and I was left without a working computer. Yes, computer failures happen even to the experts! Fortunately, I practice what I preach and had several good backups to use to rebuild my computer system. In fact, while rebuilding my computer system, I made additional backups to protect me as I worked through this problem. Everything is working perfectly now thanks to my backups.
This experience got me thinking. As a backup expert, I know when to do different types of backups. I was concerned that many of my customers and friends that don’t have this knowledge may not know what to do in backing up their computer system. So, I thought I would share some of my experience in this area with you this month.
As a beginning, every user needs to do a basic backup process that I describe in my tutorials and documents (http://www.ugr7.com). This is a full image backup of your entire main hard drive done each week with the images stored on an external hard drive. If you do no more than this, you will be well protected. However, there are other important times when additional backups are needed. Let me explain.
The following is a list of important times to do additional backups of your computer system:
1- When you first buy a new computer is an ideal time to immediately back it up before you start to make changes to the computer. This will give you a basis to return to when your computer was clean and working.
2- When you decide to do backups, get a copy of Acronis True Image Home 2012 from us and an external hard drive from your local computer store. Follow the instructions in the Starter Guide I provide my customers, to do your first backup immediately. Don’t wait months before you do your first backup. It may be too late then.
3- I recommend separating your important data files from your program files on the hard drive. Then, you can backup your important data files daily and your less critical program files weekly. This will give you much better protection of the files that are most important to you. See a paper I wrote on this subject at http://www.ugr7.com.
4- Always do a full hard drive backup immediately before you partition that hard drive and then do another full hard drive backup after the partitioning is completed. This will let you return to where you were before partitioning, if anything should go wrong with your revisions.
5- I recommend doing a full hard drive backup just before you install any major new software product on your computer. Software installations can mess up a computer when things go wrong. Having a full backup to use in those situations is a great protection.
6- Today, we see lots of “Speed-Up” and “Clean-Up” utilities on the market. These promise great improvements of your systems. However, you must trust these programs to work correctly. Unfortunately, they may over clean your computer and important files and function may be lost. Always do a full backup before using these types of utilities.
7- From time to time, we must take our computers into the experts to be fixed. Often, the computer will be returned to you with all of your programs and important data files removed from the hard drive. Sure your computer works now, but you are missing many important things from your hard drive. Make sure you always do a full hard drive backup before leaving your computer at the repair shop.
These are just a few of the many important times to do a backup of your main hard drive. Set up your backup program to run automatically on a regular basis, but don’t forget to do extra backups when you are faced with any of these special situations.
The top rated backup utility on the market today is Acronis True Image Home 2012. This outstanding product is very easy to use, completes full image backups very quickly, and can restore your computer to its working condition in minutes. We work with Acronis to market this excellent backup product to the user group community. Through this special connection, we can offer you True Image 2012 for half ($25) of its normal retail price ($50). To order at this great discount, simply go to our secure web site at http://www.ugr7.com.html and click on the appropriate Buy Now button. To get this special price, just indicate the name of your user group and the order code of UGNL1011 when you place your order.
If you have questions about this article or the True Image product, send an email to support@ugr7.com and I will try to help you with your questions.
User Group Relations
Copyrighted November 2011
This past week, my computer failed and I was left without a working computer. Yes, computer failures happen even to the experts! Fortunately, I practice what I preach and had several good backups to use to rebuild my computer system. In fact, while rebuilding my computer system, I made additional backups to protect me as I worked through this problem. Everything is working perfectly now thanks to my backups.
This experience got me thinking. As a backup expert, I know when to do different types of backups. I was concerned that many of my customers and friends that don’t have this knowledge may not know what to do in backing up their computer system. So, I thought I would share some of my experience in this area with you this month.
As a beginning, every user needs to do a basic backup process that I describe in my tutorials and documents (http://www.ugr7.com). This is a full image backup of your entire main hard drive done each week with the images stored on an external hard drive. If you do no more than this, you will be well protected. However, there are other important times when additional backups are needed. Let me explain.
The following is a list of important times to do additional backups of your computer system:
1- When you first buy a new computer is an ideal time to immediately back it up before you start to make changes to the computer. This will give you a basis to return to when your computer was clean and working.
2- When you decide to do backups, get a copy of Acronis True Image Home 2012 from us and an external hard drive from your local computer store. Follow the instructions in the Starter Guide I provide my customers, to do your first backup immediately. Don’t wait months before you do your first backup. It may be too late then.
3- I recommend separating your important data files from your program files on the hard drive. Then, you can backup your important data files daily and your less critical program files weekly. This will give you much better protection of the files that are most important to you. See a paper I wrote on this subject at http://www.ugr7.com.
4- Always do a full hard drive backup immediately before you partition that hard drive and then do another full hard drive backup after the partitioning is completed. This will let you return to where you were before partitioning, if anything should go wrong with your revisions.
5- I recommend doing a full hard drive backup just before you install any major new software product on your computer. Software installations can mess up a computer when things go wrong. Having a full backup to use in those situations is a great protection.
6- Today, we see lots of “Speed-Up” and “Clean-Up” utilities on the market. These promise great improvements of your systems. However, you must trust these programs to work correctly. Unfortunately, they may over clean your computer and important files and function may be lost. Always do a full backup before using these types of utilities.
7- From time to time, we must take our computers into the experts to be fixed. Often, the computer will be returned to you with all of your programs and important data files removed from the hard drive. Sure your computer works now, but you are missing many important things from your hard drive. Make sure you always do a full hard drive backup before leaving your computer at the repair shop.
These are just a few of the many important times to do a backup of your main hard drive. Set up your backup program to run automatically on a regular basis, but don’t forget to do extra backups when you are faced with any of these special situations.
The top rated backup utility on the market today is Acronis True Image Home 2012. This outstanding product is very easy to use, completes full image backups very quickly, and can restore your computer to its working condition in minutes. We work with Acronis to market this excellent backup product to the user group community. Through this special connection, we can offer you True Image 2012 for half ($25) of its normal retail price ($50). To order at this great discount, simply go to our secure web site at http://www.ugr7.com.html and click on the appropriate Buy Now button. To get this special price, just indicate the name of your user group and the order code of UGNL1011 when you place your order.
If you have questions about this article or the True Image product, send an email to support@ugr7.com and I will try to help you with your questions.