Asking people to back up their work is kind of like being nagged by your Mom. Today one of the staff at the local weekly paper suffered a computer failure and did a column on how most of his work was on his gorked computer. The first from question every computer guru he approached was "Did you back up your data?" "Uhh....No."
Sooner of later everyone experiences some sort of computer failure caused by hard disk mechanical failure, a virus, a dirt clogged cooling fan, or just the perversity on inanimate objects. Backups are as essential as wearing your tuque when it's really cold out.
Windows ME/Window 98/95 CD ROMs come with a very good backup program which many users are unaware of since it isn't included in a typical installation. To install just insert and start the Windows CD ROM then Click on the 'Browse this CD' icon. Double click on the 'Add Ons' folder, then on the MSBackup folder. Double click on the msbexp.exe icon and the backup program should self install. Thanks to the folks at DUX Computer Digest who have some more hints on their web site at
How to Install MS Backup with Windows 9X and Windows ME
Oddly enough I first became aware of the Windows backup program while installing a Jaz drive on a Observatory computer when Windows 95 first came out. The MS Backup program was packed with the drive but definitely not on any of the Windows 95 CD ROMS that we had at the time.
A Free Beta version of the Novosoft Handy Backup 2.0 program is still available at this time. (February,2002) The "Industrial Strength" Handy Backup 3.0 is now available for $30.00 U.S. The Novosoft site is also worth a visit for some more background on problems and strategies. Handy Backup can encrypt data and send it to a remote computer in another city.
A number of other backup programs are also available from tucows. Look for Systems and Utilities / File Tools.
Floppy disks, re-writable CD-ROMS, various types of tape drives, a second hard drive, or even a remote computer can be used to store your important data. Home users with only 1.44 Mb Floppies as storage media would be surprised at how much real data can be compressed into a box of 3 1/2" floppies once you realize that there is no point in backing up programs already on CD-ROMs.
Info-Zip file compression / extraction utilities
Slice32.exe (140 kb) PC Magazine contributor Paul Trout's excellent little program slices large files into sets of small files. Highly recommended.