Spring Into Windows XP Service Pack 2

There are a multitude of other backup variants available. Some of them are not technically considered backups, but they get the job done nonetheless: they create a second copy of your data on a separate location. We'll look at a few here in this final chunk.

The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard

Although not designed expressly for this purpose, this wizard makes a fairly effective backup tool. You can use it to move files from one system to another, resulting in two systems with the same files. It was designed to transfer settings and files to a new computer from one marked for decommission, but you can customize it so that it only transfers files, and there's no law that prohibits you from transferring files between two active computers. The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard is found in your System Tools.

Copying Stuff

That's right. Although not all that glamorous, and requiring very little technical knowledge, just copying something to another locationa floppy, Zip drive, USB drive, CD-RW, or an external hard diskcan be an effective backup strategy. This is not the same as configuring a Copy type of backup using the Backup Utility.

This method works as long as you remember to make copies at regular intervals and as long as you only need a relatively simple backup. For example, keep all the data that you ever need backed up in a folder called Data, and set your Palm device to remind you every week or so to make a copy of Data.

Make a Disk Image

This strategy uses software that is not designed explicitly for backup purposes but that is very effective as such. With imaging software, the entire contents of the hard diskthe operating system, files, multiple volumes and allare stored in a single image file. You can "inflate" the image file to another blank hard disk in the event of emergency.

Famous examples of imaging programs include Norton's Ghost and Drive Image, although I've used shareware programs to great effect.

Use Other File-Syncing Utilities

These utilities are third-party versions of the File and Settings Transfer Wizard and help you set up mirror images of important data folders elsewhere, usually on a network drive. Using this strategy, you always have two copies of your working files, one locally and one on the network. In the event of a crash, only the most recent changes since the last sync are lost.