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Protect Your Data: Organize Your Files and Make BackupsDo you only have one copy of the report that is due next week or only one copy of the PowerPoint slide show for your presentation at next month’s national conference? What would you do if the hard disk crashed or a virus zapped that file? Panic?! These occurrences would not be a problem if you have backups of your files. Organize your files
For instructions on how to create folders and manage your files, please see the “Managing Files and Folders” section of the Making File Management Easy with Windows Explorer instruction sheet. NOTE: If you have your files on a departmental file server, you can also use these instructions for organizing your files on the server. Change associated program settingsWhen you create these folders for your data files, you will need to change the associated program settings for the File > Open option to show this new folder by default. For example, in PowerPoint, Word, and Excel go to Tools > Options in the menu. In the Options dialog box, click on the Save tab and change the “Default file location” to the correct folder location. In WordPerfect, go to Tools > Settings. In the Settings dialog box, click on the Files icon and change the location of the “Default document folder” setting. Make backupsYou create a backup of your files by simply copying them to a different physical location other than your local machine. Whether your files are on your local computer or a departmental server, you want to make sure they are backed up. One of the simplest ways for UNL faculty and staff to backup their files is to use the NSave backup/restore service provided by Information Services. NSave works on either PC or Mac desktops or Windows, Macintosh, or Unix servers. Individuals subscribe to the NSave service for $5.00 per month for up to 10GB of storage. NSave software is installed on the desktop and backup/restores are done over a network connection to an IS server. The backup process runs automatically on a schedule you set. Files can be restored up to six months later. For more information, go to http://nsave.unl.edu. In addition to backing up your data files in the My Documents folder, you may want to back up some program user files. For Lotus Notes files, back up the C:\Program Files\lotus\notes\data folder. If you want to backup your Firefox bookmarks file, use the Export option (Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks > File > Export) to make a copy of the file. To backup the Microsoft Internet Explorer Favorites file, use the File > Import/Export wizard. NOTE: You only need to back up your data files — documents, Web pages, photo files, slide show files, etc. You don’t need to back up your programs or the operating system. If you have hardware problems or your system (or program) degrades to a point that requires you to restore it, it is safest to install the operating system and/or programs fresh and only restore the data files from a backup. Operating system or program degradation doesn’t happen overnight, but usually accumulates over time. |
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To make it easy to find your files and make backups, organize your files in folders within the My Documents folder (see image at right for a sample organization of folders).