Backup program suggestions.

Well, as many of you know, my PC decided to rid itself of my documents, family pictures, and some of my music files. Thru the means of recovery software I was able to undelete most of my lost files. I have yet to figure out what happened and at this point I'm not likely to find out the why of the matter. I'll go ahead and explain what steps I have taken to prevent this from happening again.

Step #1 - I organized all of my folders that keep my important files like pictures, documents, etc. I made two copies of them and place the copies in separate folders on my second hard drive.

Step #2 - I have incorporated SyncBack (freeware) in backing up these files on a daily basis. My files if deleted on my first hard drive could be recovered from the second drive and I will have only lost a day's worth of work. I'm also trying out Power Folder (freeware) which can keep two folders synced as changes are made. I might end up user this so as not to lose any work whatsoever.

Step #3 - I've eliminated many extra programs I do not use on a regular basis. I've decided to know keep programs I think I might use down the road, but rather get rid of them so to less complicate my PC and hopefully avoid problems.

Step #4 - I cleaned up my register by using the suggested programs from 46 Freeware. So far these programs I have used have helped my computer have less errors at startup. The programs were Eusing Free Registry Cleaner and jv16 Power Tools.

Step #5 - Prior to all the above, I ran virus scans and spyware scans several times.

Step #6 - Prior to changing anything on my first hard drive, I use the PC Inspector Recovery Software to find my lost files and got most of them back. It is very important when you have a data lost to not add any new files or make changes to your hard drive as you can overwrite your lost data. This happened to me and that is why I didn't recover all that I could have. Another TGP reader suggested using Acronis True Image (commercial). The software suite retails for $49.99 and it would seem worth the money to avoid what has happened to me. I'm looking into purchasing this software to aid in keeping my important files backed up and safe.

Step #7 - I am creating DVD discs of my important files, mostly my pictures. I can stand to lose my documents, but my pictures of my kids and family, would be almost impossible to bear.

So that about wraps up what I've been thru this week. I've been spending too much time on this and I'm definitely taking steps to avoid this happening again in the future. I'll be posting some more today and I hope that you have taken the time to backup your important data as you don't want to have to live thru data loss with no recovery.