Backing Up New Computer

[ICOUNT]

I'm a one person ( 67 years old) office using an XP professional computer. I have been backing up ATX data to a flash drive and an external hard drive. I was considering to purchase a laptop or notebook to back up to. I called ATX and they indicated I would need an XP professional computer ( at least they strongly recommend it) It would be difficult to purchase & set up a new computer especially during busy tax season . I checked with Best Buy-----they don't sell xp professional computers. What does a person do?First has anyone used Nortons Ghost backup which supposedly will back up the entire hard drive & therefore it would not be necessary to install the programs over? Is it possible to make a copy of the hard drive on an external hard drive & if the hard drive crashes plug it in to another computer. What about having 2 internal hard drives & having them mirror each other so if one crashes just switch to other ? I would still back up my data & take the external hard drive home. Would a person try to find a used XP professional computer to have in case of a crash? In case of a crash what about the internet addresses etc? Can I use original xp disk on a new computer or hard drive? They tell me there are different versions of XP professional program.

Another concern I have is the potential office break ins. My office does have a building alarm---there has been a number break ins in this area. Has anyone thought about all the confidential info on the computer & office? Is there insurance available ?

I appreciate your comments

[mcb39]

I use Nortons Ghost monthly and back up to alternating Iomega Rev Disks. In theory, yes, everything should be there if your hard drive crashes. BUT, I also back up all important files daily to Rev, Zip and even floppy disks as well as jump drives. My thinking is that you cannot back up too much. As for solving the XP dilemma, I cannot help you with that as I am using the same OS and wonder myself what will happen when I have to update.

[kcjenkins]

you can still buy them lots of places.

http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/IBM-T...ci_sku=11744307

http://www.circuitcity.com/applications/Se...&CatId=1815

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....archResult=True

http://www.bizrate.com/desktop-computers/windows-xp-pro/

[Randall]

Another concern I have is the potential office break ins. My office does have a building alarm---there has been a number break ins in this area. Has anyone thought about all the confidential info on the computer & office? Is there insurance available ?

I appreciate your comments

As for break-in concerns, I use PGP Encryption software. It allows me to encrypt my internal HD, external HDs and flash drives.

[ed_accountant]

You should consult with a local computer tech that can come to your office. We are experts at income tax not computers. A local computer expert can offer advice and support at an affordable hourly rate. It makes all the difference when the computer tech come to your office so he can see your setup.

I hired a local tech to network my two computers and it came out perfectly. I paid the Tech for hourly services only and orded the equipment from Dell.

[TAXBILLY]

You should consult with a local computer tech that can come to your office. We are experts at income tax not computers. A local computer expert can offer advice and support at an affordable hourly rate. It makes all the difference when the computer tech come to your office so he can see your setup.

I hired a local tech to network my two computers and it came out perfectly. I paid the Tech for hourly services only and orded the equipment from Dell.

When I needed new computers a few years ago my computer guy ordered the parts and built it (for speed) for me. Well worth it.

taxbilly

[ed_accountant]

You may want to consider an online backup system to backup your data... I use carbonite..

http://www.carbonite.com/how_it_works/

[Lion EA]

The VMS guys offer backups, too. Mine goes automatically at 3 a.m. every night. That's in addition to my external hard drive and flash drives and.... One problem with being a home-based sole proprietor is that I had no easy place to store a backup away from my home office. Bank safe deposit box isn't available 24/7. So, VMS up in Maine is great for me.

[guardian webmaster]

If at all possible what I do is run all my most important information off "what most would call" a junk computer. Basically something that can stand running windows XP/server 2003 and secure store all my information off my main computer. What typically happens, by no bad intentions at all, a website is gone to (or email) that contains simple spyware. These can affect any file on your computer, even your returns, and software itself. Usually if someone is well protected from these types of issues they have little to no concern. There is times, not all the time but there is times, that a virus scanner/spyware remover accidently corrupts a file while trying to get rid of it. This can cause the beginning process of a virus to take place but not fully. Which this can lead to your system crashing out completely. There is a reason why people do pay the extra $ for a top company such as Norton, McAfee. I have heard even some good reviews on AVG, but I don't personally like their firewall system. These accidents can be googled or searched on yahoo.

With that, the best thing to do is network most of your important information through a secure username/group. That way there is 1 entry point for data. For instance, if you have a junk computer/server running you would just set an administrator password that only you know. Once thats done, you would then make your main computer (host, main admin computer) and have this computer pull the information from the secure'd computer through 1 point. You would also want to organize all your folder data inside a main folder. This way you won't have to try to copy your WHOLE hard-drive, just your important things. You then can do daily backup/overwrites each night when you leave onto an external hard-drive or good USB Flash drive. I would recommend the Flash Drive since they have ones that stay on your key chain that hold up around 50gb.

This can be seen as "over the top", but this is a really guaranteed backup efficiency system you can do between 2 computers and an external.

You are also open to online backup storage. There are a few good ones out there, but no matter what decision you decide to go with its always best to have your data on a secure/non-active computer.

[Redneck]

Windows xp has a simple back-up command built in. To get to it: Click on START > PROGRAMS > ACCESSORIES > SYSTEM TOOLS > BACKUP. Once you have BACKUP highlighted > Right Click on SEND TO DESKTOP (Create Short Cut)

This will create a short cut on the desktop so afterwards you only have to click on the short cut. This tool gives you several options as to what you want to back up, one of which is to backup the entire drive. I use it and have had no trouble with it so far. You don't necessarily have to have two hard drives of the same size to back up the entire hard drive. But, of course, the drive to which you back up must be large enough to hold the contents of the hard drive from which you are backing up.

[Redneck]

I did forget to mention one requirement for using this back up. When backing up your entire hard drive you have to have a floppy drive because the program puts some files on the floppy that are needed to recover the backed up files. I have never used it for anything other than full hard drive backups so I don't know if a floppy drive is required if you are only backing up some selected files.

[10SorTAX]

If you're looking for a brand new computer with XP Pro, you can get one at Toshiba.com or Dell.com. Just have to pay a little extra for the "downgrade" from Vista or 7.