Question: I've noticed in past columns that you write about using the backup facility built into Windows XP Pro. I don't use that program because I have been quite happy backing up my essential files and my e-mail address book (*.wab) on to CD-R's.

I buy them in stacks of 50 or 100 as they are very cheap and it used to only take a few to hold all my files and photos. The only problem is that I have gradually acquired so much information on my computer that it now requires something like 10 or 11 blank CD's to backup all my photos together with the new digital movies which I'm starting to keep in the computer until I get a DVD burner, after which I can put the movies on to DVD's.

It's not the cost of the blank CD's, which is still under $5 per backup, that bothers me, it's just that this method is producing too many of them to keep track of. I'm not even backing up the operating system, that's just files.

It's getting wasteful and unworkable. Do you have any suggestions?

Answer: There are many different ways to backup your PC. The important thing is that you do it at all. In my experience most people don't. Possibly this is because of late PC's seem so much more reliable than they were even a few years ago that we get lulled into a state of complacency.

However, it's no exaggeration to say that every week, in my shop, I see computers that have died with either no warning or the user did not recognise the signs. Often, precious folders, photos, e-mails and important correspondence vanish permanently into wherever it is that dead data goes.

I try not to propose complicated backup regimens because, despite all the good intentions, if the process of backing-up ends up being a lot of work it doesn't get done. The Windows XP Pro backup system is built-in, free and pretty easy to use. By the way, the XP backup system can also be added to an existing XP home installation at any time.

The software needed is tucked away on the original XP Home operating system CD as an additional feature. How to add this feature was covered in an earlier column so you can look that up at www.computerworksbermuda.com.

The real key to safeguarding your data lies in redundancy to more than one external media. I have clients who use a Maxtor One-Touch external hard drive which can be set to backup the entire contents of all the hard drives at the touch of the button - and this device only has one button.

However these are experienced computer users willing to spend several hundred dollars to keep their data safe and even so, from their own bitter past experiences, they additionally use other methods of backing up their data.

Some use a DAT tape drive which, with tape cartridges, costs over a thousand dollars. Others also copy essential files to CD-R, which brings me back to your question. I noticed that you're planning to get a DVD recorder, primarily to copy your home movies to blank DVD's. You should also consider using your new DVD recorder to backup selected directories, data files and photographs to data DVD's.

Data DVD's are the same blanks that you will use to copy movies, but what's especially good about them is their large capacity. Recordable DVD's hold 4,700MB's of data, which is more than 6 times the amount that you can cram on to a 700 MB blank CD-R.

I backup the most essential 12GB of data files on my own computer on to just three blank DVD's. To copy this much data to CD-R would require using 16 CD's which is too many to label and keep track of.

Three DVD's is do-able, portable and affordable.

Of course, first of all you have to have a PC DVD recorder. I picked up one for a client in Hamilton last week for approximately $230. They pop right in where your CD drive or CD recorder drive was. Before buying make sure that your one supports both current DVD recording formats. If you're not sure ask the salespeople in the store or carefully read the label on the box first. Blank DVD's are more expensive than blank CD-R's at about $80 for a stack of 25.

Recordable DVD's are also available in DVD read/write, rewritable disks in the same way as CD-R's are available as CD-RW's which can be erased and reused. If you settle on using rewritable media, the choice of using re-writable data DVD's becomes a good bargain considering their 4.7 GB storage capacity. If you have a total disaster and all you are left with to reconstitute your files is a small stack of burned DVD's, even if you don't reuse the original DVD recorder you can still play them back on an ordinary PC DVD player.

As far as CD or DVD authoring software is concerned, and by that I mean the software needed to copy (burn) to blank DVD's or CD's, I advocate the use of Easy CD Creator 6, made by Roxio. This is the most popular CD authoring software suite. Its main competitor is Nero.

When using the Creator Classic program in Easy CD Creator 6 I simply keep adding the files that I wish to copy until I have them all. When they total over 4.7 GB (the current capacity limit for blank DVD's), Creator Classic adds a small, self-starting program named Roxio Retrieve to the new DVD. This, in retrieval mode, tells you which of your stack of DVD's to put in the DVD drive next.

If your backup runs to two or three DVD's there will be at least one file on each DVD which overlaps onto another disk. Without Roxio Retrieve this handful of files might be unreadable.

Unlike other backup solutions, which rely on data compression and possibly require the original backup software be used again to ‘re-constitute' the saved files, the Easy CD Creator 6 method described here copies the files, names unchanged, in their original size and format.

This means that any individual file can be retrieved off its backup DVD, or CD, at any time on any computer that has as CD-ROM or a DVD player. Possibly you're not ready to buy a DVD recorder for your computer, possibly the amount of the data that you need to backup makes backing up on CD-R still feasible.

The only difference between using data CD's and data DVD's is the amount of data per disk. You will only be able to save 700 MB of data per CD as opposed to 4,700 MB per DVD.

On your computer you might consider keeping the directories and subdirectories of all data files and photographs to a maximum size of 700 MB or less, creating a new subdirectory for every additional 700 MB of data. With directories of 700 MB or less you could put one on each blank CD.

True, this method is not highly sophisticated but it does have the virtue of being simple and straightforward. When it comes to reliable retrieval of backed up data, give me simple and straightforward any time.

James W. Lapsley of ComputerWorks, specialises in PC repairs, upgrades and advice for the home and small office user. ComputerWorks welcomes your questions and comments. Send your PC questions by e-mail to

computerworks@logic.bm, or by phone to 293-0992.