Answer:
If you’re just interested in protecting your work in progress (such as Microsoft Money files), save an additional copy of the desired file(s) to any everyday rewriteable disc rather than the local hard drive or simply use My Computer to copy a desired file and paste it to your CD or DVD. (Your packet-writing software such as Roxio’s Drag-To-Disc [part of Easy CD & DVD Creator 6—$49.99; www.roxio.com] will do the rest). However, if you’d rather protect the whole works (which is a good idea to do periodically), back up the entire system. You can certainly use tape backups, but they tend to be slower and more expensive than the optical drives in almost every PC today.
If you stick with an optical drive, select backup software that will accommodate your particular drive. Not all backup software supports every drive model, so be sure to check compatibility before making a purchase. Dedicated external backup hard drives are another popular option and include their own backup utilities.
Ordinary backups don’t always copy every file or system setting. You may have to reinstall the operating system and backup software before you’re able to restore the backup. Many users opt for ghosting software (such as Symantec’s Norton Ghost 9.0; $69.95, www.symantec.com), which specifically creates a sector-by-sector image of your drive and creates bootable media. When disaster strikes, you can restart with the bootable media and then directly restore the image file.
Remember that a backup (or system image) only reflects your PC at that moment in time. You will still need to back up your important work files as they change.
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