Windows Vista Security For Dummies®

Chapter 8. Backing Up So You Can Always Restore

In This Chapter

• Making backups a part of your security strategy

• Fitting Vista backup options into your strategy

• Knowing when, why, and how to use a system restore

• Organizing and backing up your data

• Restoring your system and your data

Backing up your system and data is a fundamental security component that's often overlooked and underused by even the most technically adept and business‐savvy people. Unfortunately, such oversight can produce stomach‐churning consequences when irreplaceable files or hundreds of hours of work are lost.

The good news is that Vista Backup is a capable and easy‐to‐use tool — and, when used correctly, it can provide you a great deal of mileage in your data protection journey. Although Vista Backup can do most of the heavy lifting itself and can run at scheduled intervals, properly preserving your data still requires a little research and planning. Specifically, you need to understand your data security requirements, find out about the available backup and recovery options, and then decide when and how to use those options.

In this chapter, I help you through this planning process. And to further ensure your success, I throw in a few tips on how to organize your data so that backing up and restoring is a breeze.

Why Should I Back Up My Data?

Backing up is not just for the security‐obsessed. Even if you don't consider yourself all that security‐conscious, I bet you easily recognize that some of the data lurking around ...