Backup Restore Issues

| October 27, 2012

Backup Restore Issues On External Hard Drives

Wouldn’t it be disappointing to find out that you cannot use your backup after you have been diligently backing up your data? If you have been backing up your data to an external hard drive, keep reading! Any backup of your computer is better than no backup at all. But does your back up utility or external hard drive make it easy for you to restore your data?

computer backupSome external hard drives only let you restore the whole computer. That’s fine when all you want to do is replace a bad hard drive on the same computer. However, if you decided that you wanted to get a new computer, there might be a problem. If the software that comes with your external hard drive only gives you the option to restore the whole computer, it means you cannot get your data files unless you restore the WHOLE computer. So you will be forced to restore the whole computer just to get to your data files. I don’t know about you, but to me that’s not an efficient back up system. That backup could be virtually useless if it’s not possible to restore to the same computer.

Tips For Creating Useful Computer Backups

Okay, so we can see the potential problem with some back up systems; now how can you prevent this from happening to you? Here are a few tips that might be useful:

  • One of the ways to avoid this predicament is to shop smart; do a little research before you buy an external backup hard drive to make sure that it has a utility that will allow you to restore individual data files to any computer!
  • If you already have been backing up to an external hard drive, check to make sure that you can restore individual files.
  • If you have an external hard drive that does not come with a utility for restoring individual files, use alternative back up software. I prefer to use Drive Image XML (DIX) which is free and works great! It allows you to create an image backup of your hard drive and gives you the option to restore individual files. You can also use the back up utility that comes with your computer to avoid future “headaches.”

With the above three points, you can play a proactive role in making sure that you have more options on how to restore your computer or data! Of course it takes some time and a little knowledge about backing up and restoring computer files. So if you don’t have the time or knowledge you can always ask a “computer guy” in your area to give you a hand.