Guides > Computing > Document Management and Backup

• Introduction
• Glossary of Terms
• Everyday Documents
  • Organisation
  • Backup
• Large, Fairly Static Documents
  • Organisation
  • Backup

Introduction

It is vitally important that you backup your documents so you can recover them if anything goes wrong.

The backup process can take a long time, so it is important that you organise your files into those that change often (email, Word documents and spreadsheets) and those that are large and don't change much (photographs, videos and audio). This way, you can backup the large static files once and only backup the ones that change when you need to.

Please read through the Glossary of Terms for a definitions of the terms and conventions used in this guide.

Glossary of Terms

Everyday Documents

Organisation

• Keep all your documents in one place so you can backup everything in one go:
  • The best place for this on the Windows platform is the "My Documents" folder:
    • Windows 9x, ME, NT 3.5x and NT 4 store them in "C:\My Documents".
    • Windows 2000 and XP store them in "C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents", where username is the username you used to log into the computer.
  • Some things aren't stored there by default, so they need moving, unless I set up your computer, in which case it has already been done:
    • Favourites
      • Run Windows Explorer ("Start > Programs > Accessories > Windows Explorer").
      • Move the Favorites folder from "C:\Documents and Settings\username" to the location of "My Documents".
      • You will probably be warned that you are moving a system folder, but go ahead and do it anyway, as Windows Explorer will update the registry to point to the new location.
    • Outlook Express Message Store
      • For some reason, the Outlook Express message store resides outside "My Documents" by default:
        • "C:\Windows\Application Data\Outlook Express\{GUID}" on "Windows 9x, ME, NT3.5x and NT 4.
        • "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{GUID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express" on Windows 2000 and XP.
      • Change this to point to a new folder in "My Documents":
        • Create a folder called "Email" within "My Documents".
        • Run Outlook Express
        • Select the "Tools > Options" menu item.
        • Switch to the "Maintenance" page.
        • Select the "Store Folder..." button.
        • Select "Change".
        • Navigate to the "Email" folder you created within "My Documents".
        • Select "OK" in all the dialogs restart Outlook Express for the change to take effect.
    • Windows Address Book
      • The windows address book - used by the Windows Address book application and Outlook Express - resides in the following location:
        • "C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\username.wab" on Windows 9x, ME, NT 3.5x and NT 4.0.
        • "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\username.wab" on Windows 2000 and XP.
      • Move the file within the "My Documents" structure:
        • Create a folder called "Address Book" within "My Documents".
        • Move the address book into this new folder.
        • Rename the file to "username.wab", where "username" is the user name you logged in as.
        • WARNING: This step requires that you edit the registry. It is recommended that you have a valid backup of the system before proceeding:
          • Run regedit:
            • Select the "Start > Run" menu item.
            • Enter "regedit".
            • Select "OK".
          • Edit or create the "(Default)" key within "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab File Name" to point to the new location and filename of the Windows Address Book.
• Filenames
  • Make the file names as descriptive as possible so you know exactly what the file is. Don't worry about making it too long for the limits imposed by CD-ROM and DVD file systems, as we will be using WinZip to compress all the files into a single file (archive), which preserves all the long filenames within it and it is this archive that we will copy to the CD or DVD with a name like surname_firstname_yyyymmdd.zip.
  • If you have multiple versions of a file, append the date to the filename in the format yyyymmdd, so the files can be sorted into chronological order by setting the folder to sort by file name.
• Folders (Directories)
  • It is a good idea to group your documents into logically related folders to keep the number of files in a single folder to a managable level.
  • You might choose to create a structure like the following:
    • Car
    • Education
    • Finances
      • Current Accounts
      • Credit Cards
      • Mortgage
      • Pension
      • Savings
      • Will
    • Insurance
    • Orders
    • Professional
      • Applications
      • CV

Backup

• Use the following three disc rolling backup system, with the addition of an off-site backup:
  • Initial Preparation (only necessary the first time you use the discs)
    • Label two sets of three rewritable discs (CD-RW, DVD+RW or DVD-RW) with the names "Backup 1", "Backup 2" and "Backup 3" using a CD marker pen. Make sure the pen says it can be used on CDs (Xylene free), otherwise the ink will eat into the CD and eventually make it unreadable.
    • Format the rewritables to use the UDF format using something like B's Clip. This allows you to treat it like you would a floppy disk:
      • Run Windows Explorer ("Start > Programs > Accessories > Windows Explorer").
      • Navigate to the writer drive ("W:" if set up by me) within "My Computer"..
      • Right click on the drive letter.
      • Select "B's Clip Format".
      • Specify the "UDF" format.
      • Select "Start".
    • Store a set of discs in the same building as the computer in a cupboard or fire safe, which becomes the "Local Backup".
    • Store a set of discs in another location like a friend or relative's house, which becomes the "Off-site backup".
    • If necessary, create a folder to contain the ZIP archive, in this case, "C:\Backup":
      • Run Windows Explorer ("Start > Programs > Accessories > Windows Explorer").
      • Navigate to "C:" within "My Computer".
      • Create a folder called "Backup" by selecting the "File > New > Folder" menu item and entering "Backup" as the name.
  • Backup all the documents within "My Documents" to a ZIP archive file:
    • If you haven't created a WinZIP archive before or you recently deleted or renamed a file or restructured the folders within "My Documents", then create a new ZIP archive:
      • Run "WinZip" ("Start > Winzip").
      • Create the new archive:
      • Select the "File > New Archive" menu item.
      • Set "File name" to "C:\Backup\surname_firstname_yyyymmdd.zip", where yyyymmdd is the current date.
      • Select "OK", which should open the "Add" dialog.
      • Add the contents of "My Documents" to the archive:
        • The creation of a new archive in the previous step should have opened the "Add" dialog.
        • Set "Look in" to "My Documents", which is really "C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents", where "Username" is the username you logged into the computer as.
        • Set "File name" to "*.*".
        • Set "Compression" to "Maximum (slowest)".
        • Enable "Include subfolders".
        • Enable "Save full path info".
        • Enable "Include system and hidden files".
        • Select "Add with wildcards".
    • However, if there is an existing archive and you only created a new file or modified an existing one, then open the latest archive and update it:
      • Run "WinZip" ("Start > Winzip").
      • Open the latest archive:
        • Select the "File > Open" menu item.
        • Navigate to "C:\Backup".
        • Single click on the most recent ZIP file, which should put the name of the file in the "File name" field.
        • Select "Open".
      • Rename the file to contain today's date:
        • Select the "File > Rename Archive" menu item.
        • Change the digits in the file name representing the date to today's date in the format yyyymmdd.
        • Select "OK".
      • Add the contents of "My Documents" to the archive:
        • Select the "Actions > Add" menu item or click on the "Add" toolbar button, which should open the "Add" dialog.
        • Set "Look in" to "My Documents", which is really "C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents", where "Username" is the username you logged into the computer as.
        • Set "File name" to "*.*".
        • NB: Set "Action" to "Update (and add) files".
        • Set "Compression" to "Maximum (slowest)".
        • Enable "Include subfolders".
        • Enable "Save full path info".
        • Enable "Include system and hidden files".
        • Select "Update with wildcards", which will start the update process. You will have to wait until it finishes before you can continue.
  • Copy the backup to the next rewritable in the set:
    • Insert the next rewritable in the backup set into the writer. If B's Clip appears, select "OK".
    • With the archive still open in WinZip, press "F8" or select the "File > Copy Archive" menu item, which will display the "Copy" dialog.
    • Select the writer drive from the list ("W:" if set up by me), which should display "W:\" in the "Copy to" box.
    • Select "OK", which should start the copy process.
    • If there isn't enought space on the rewritable:
      • Delete the oldest version on it:
        • Run Windows Explorer ("Start > Programs > Accessories > Windows Explorer").
        • Navigate to the writer drive ("W:" if set up by me).
        • Select the oldest file in the list of archives in the right hand side of the window and press "Del".
      • Try copy the file again as above.
  • Store this rewritable off-site, retrieve the identically labeled rewriteable from the off-site location, copy the latest backup to it as above and store it locally.

Large, Fairly Static Documents

Organisation

• This category mainly contains files like photographs, music and videos, which can be quite large and don't tend to change much. They are ideal candidates for storing on CD-R, DVD-R or DVD+R when they take up more than one disc, but while they haven't managed to fill up a full disc, they can be kept on a rewritable.
• Filenames
  • NB: These files will be copied directly onto a CD or DVD, so make sure their filenames are no longer than 64 characters.
  • Photographs and Home Videos
    • Keep everything lowercase and use an underscore (_) instead of a space to separate words. This allows the files to be shared on the internet, which is case sensitive, without having to worry about whether it is uppercase or lowercase.
    • Prefix all filenames with the date and time they were taken in the format "yyyymmdd_hhmmss_":
      • This allows you to view them in the order in which they were taken by sorting by file name.
      • The date associated with a file will change when it is edited and can be lost when the file is moved between computers or media, so it is better to use the prefix.
      • Most cameras come with a transfer utility that will automatically prefix the filename with the date and time - my Nikon Coolpix 995 is supplied with NikonView which does this.
  • Audio
    • Store the files in a folder structure consisting of the artist name with sub-folders of the album names.
    • The album name should be in collation order format so the surname appears before the first name, which allows for correct sorting of names. For example, "Amos, Tori".
    • The individual audio files should have the format "Artist - nn - Track Name.mp3", where nn is the track number with a leading zero to make it sort correctly into the order in which the tracks appear on the CD.
    • Album, Artist and Track names should use title capitalisation:
      • Capitalise all words except:
        • prepositions
          • e.g. through, above, below
        • articles
          • e.g. a, an, the
      • Capitalise the first and last words regardless of what they are.
    • A full example would be, "\Amos, Tori\Strange Little Girls\Amos, Tori - 01 - New Age.mp3"
    • Most CD ripper programs will create this structure for you. See the mp3 recording section of my software guide for more information
  • Videos
    • The same as Audio.
• Folder Structure
  • I use the following folder structure:
    • C:\media
      • audio
        • books
        • comedy
        • music
        • personal_development
      • downloads
      • photographs
      • software
      • videos
      • new
        • audio
          • books
          • comedy
          • music
          • personal_development
        • downloads
        • photographs
        • software
        • videos
  • The "new" folder is used to keep a copy of files that haven't yet filled up a CD. Once they have been burnt to CD, they can be deleted, as their original versions will be in the main folders below media.

Backup

• When backing up to CDs, a different set of disks should be used for each media type and labeled as follows:
  • audio_nnn
  • downloads_nnn
  • photographs_nnn
  • software_nnn
  • videos_nnn
• where "nnn", is a sequential, leading zeroed number. For example, "photographs_001".
• A rewritable can be used until there is enough to fill it, at which point you can write the files to a writable (CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R) and start building up the next disk.