Hello. I keep on reading everywhere how important it is to back up data. the problem is, not being very technically-minded, I'm not sure exactly what this means! Do I just save a copy of what I write on a USB key or do I need an external harddrive and if so, what type? Thanks for any tips!:-)

TimeforTea - it really does depend on a few factors
1. The quantity of data you are saving - Are you just using the PC for Word, Excel and EndNote or running data intensive programs like CAD or simulation applications
2. How much work you have done so far - Obviously the more work you've done, the more important backup becomes.

Before I go any further, your dept. should be able to reimburse any costs that you incur - its your work, therefore they are responsible.
I would do the following
1. Decide on a time that you will back up all your information - I would suggest once every two days at a specific time.
2. Get at least 2 (if not three) USB keys initially. Have one of the USB keys in the office and carry either of the other two about with you. Back up the information to at least one of the USB keys (alternating them each time, storing the latest one in the office)
3. When your files grow, get an external hard drive. Store all your information on the external drive but still use the USB keys to store the more important files
4. On your PC or laptop, organise your work so that it is in distinct folders (have an overall one for PhD material and it is then a straight forward Copy & Paste operation to back up the files)
5. Don't forget to backup your Endnote records (or whatever bibliography application you are using)
6. If working on an important document, send it to one of your email accounts once finished working on it for the day - it'll only take two seconds (File - Send To - Mail Recipient (as Attachment)) and also handy if you are working remotely.

There is probably a dearth of other tips - the main thing is getting into the habit of backing up and maintaining it. Hope this was someway helpful and if stuck on anything, gis a shout. That's it in a "Nutshell" ... which, coincidentally I am currently listening to at the mo (AIC forever!)

Yes, as they say with hard drives, it's only a matter of time before they fail, so you need a backup.

A USB key probably wouldn't be big enough over the 3 years, so you need an external drive with, in your case, a USB2 connection. Have a think about what you want to back up. For instance, as well as your PhD files, do you have music files or lots of photos. These all require significant drive space so go for a large external drive.

You then periodically (weekly at least) back up to the external. After the first backup, try to find some software that examines both drives of your machine (or just a specified folder) and compares them so that it only backs up new files or files that have changed since the last backup (therefore not touching any files which haven't changed). Makes the whole backup process much much quicker. I use FolderMatch but there are others out there.

My advice is similar. Choose one convenient weekday (for example Sunday evenings), save your work on at least two USB sticks and an external hard drive. Once you've completed a whole draft chapter, print it out and store it in a different place (for example your parent's/relatives' house.

As long as you establish the routine things will be fine. During the week, though, it seems a bit of a hassle to back up every second day. You might find it difficult to follow that rigid regime.

The most important lesson is: ALWAYS BACK UP.

I even bought myself two firesecure (company is called SENTRY SAFES safes, each one containing one USB stick, one in my study, one in my oven (naturally I take it out before I push the pizza in ;)

haha I am so paranoid that after even just an hours worth of writing, if i've clocked up like 1000 words i do a backup of that to an external harddrive and a usb key! sometimes word documents can go weird. its happened to me a few times so ever since then. when i've written a big chunk i save it and then give it another version name like
version 1
version 2
i do accumulate alot of files though, but its okay, you can always delete the older versions later on!
but it makes me feel better.

and that is a great idea about printing it out too. serious when it takes so long to write things, you want to guard it safely! you can never backup enough!

and thats a good idea about weekly backup of everything, to a dvd and external hard drive. i recently bought another external hard drive, cause i was paranoid the first one might break down. lol being paranoid is key to backing up
:p

If your department offers storage on a server, do make use of it. I used to save work on my laptop, and then back up on the network server, which itself was backed up periodically. I also used the latter for saving .pdfs of papers - saved me having to locate them online again later*, without clogging up loads of memory on my laptop.

(*Be aware that just because you found a paper online once upon a time, doesn't mean it will always be there/you will always have the right license to access it etc).

As someone's already mentioned, it depends on your subject and how much stuff you churn out - I have +70GB of modelling data etc which is located on various DVDs, external hardrive etc. But even if you're in an Arts subject I suppose you'll still produce a lot of stuff - for example, I have 1.5GB of journal papers in .pdf alone. External hard drives are stupidly cheap at the moment, check the PC World website etc. They easily work out cheaper than a USB stick if you look at £ per GB, but are less portable. I don't know which platform is the most stable/reliable.

Its very easy to be lazy though, so make sure you do it often. And an external hard drive can still fail.

If your computer/laptop dies but if its not due to a hard disc failure then you're University Computing Service should be able to recover it. Mine does it for £30 +VAT. Probably best not to rely on that though!

Another thing to consider if you urgently feel the need to back up (e.g. you're getting 'impending doom' vibes from your computer) and don't have a USB/external hard drive to hand, something web-based might be your answer. For example, Windows Sky Drive (http://skydrive.live.com/) gives you 5GB of secure online storage. It's a little clunky to use (as far as I can tell, you can only upload files, not whole folders, although you can create folders within the storage) but it's better than nothing!

I think backing your work up online is a good idea. I recommend you check out idrive-e - it can back up anything you want on your computer (folders or individual files) at the click of a button, or you can automate the back-up of your work either constantly (it saves the older versions of your files too) or at a set time each day. If a back-up fails, it actually send you an e-mail telling you so. Unfortunately, you only get 2 gig of back-up space for free, which is ok unless you're doing a data intensive PhD with, say, a lot of audio files or that modelling stuff that Sylvester mentions. If you're willing to pay about £2-50 a month you can have storage for 150 gigs of data, which is what I do. I've had no problems with it so far and it certainly gives me piece of mind to know that every bit of work I do on my computer is constantly backed up to the last minute.

By the way, I'm not an agent for them or anything!

I use a WD Passport hard drive - I don't trust just using a memory/USB stick as if you drop them, the data can be wiped.

I also have an account with BT Vault, I managed to get a free one, but I think you have to pay £5 a month now.

You could always open a googlemail account and email the important documents to yourself. That way you can have access to them anywhere (and it's free).

======= Date Modified 11 Sep 2008 09:15:22 =======

Thanks to everyone for the great advice (up)

Timefortea - in a related topic, you can set up MS Word to automatically save your documents at set intervals. Although it can be annoying as it as good as stalls the machine if the document is large, it can be beneficial (if set at 30 mins intervals, you could time it for the 5-10 min break). That said, the improved AutoRecovery functionality does help in the event of a system crash

Also, as regards general backup, if set up correctly, a simple batch file could take care of performing the backup procedure with one mouse click (DOS still has its uses!!). Anyone with two iotas of logic could compile a quick Copy program, copying from a standard location on C: drive to a USB key. Place a short cut to the program on the desktop and just click on it and it will work away in the background.