In this modern age, we’ve learned how to adapt technology to provide us with comfort and ease of movement. Personal cars allow us to go from point A to point B at our own leisure. The introduction of personalized CDs, iPods and MP3 players allow us to listen to what we want, when we want.

The bottom line is that the world where we were small and insignificant is gone. We no longer revolve around our world, it revolves around us. While the moral and social implications of such a shift would make a great debate, I would prefer to touch a different subject. Podcasts. This is a great example of the shift I’m referring to. There are many people that enjoy listening to radio hosts as they talk about various subjects ranging from the local news to the darker side of Hollywood. One unfortunate draw back is that the radio show comes on at a certain time of the day. In order to listen to it, you’ll need to arrange your schedule around it. Podcasts follow the same concept, but provide the listener the ability to listen in on their own terms.

Podcasts, or podcasting, is an emerging technology. By emerging, I don’t mean new; rather, it is becoming more popular and mainstream. People have placed audio files on the Internet for years. The ability to organize and broadcast the availability of new audio files also existed. However, I would argue that it didn’t take off until Apple took the music market by storm with its iTunes software and iPod media device. iTunes provides users the ability to sync songs with their iPod. Not only that, they can purchase songs as well as subscribe to podcast feeds. The word “podcast” was first introduced by taking Apple’s iPod trademark and mingling it with the word “broadcast.” (This has actually sparked some debate as to who owns the prefix pod-, but that is yet another subject I don’t wish to touch.)

Apple’s iTunes, mixed with it’s iPod, created an easy way to subscribe to various “internet radio shows” which could be copied to the iPod for later listening. As I said before, this isn’t a new concept or technology. Other software developers have also created software (in some cases, they’re available for free), which would allow a person to do the same thing with any portable media device (MP3 Player).

There are ups and downs to any software. If you own an iPod, iTunes is the best bet. However, if you’re like me, and have invested in a less expensive device (Sandisk m240), there are a plethora of other options. Of all the many, many, many options out there, I’m a fan of Juice along with Media Monkey. I feel they provide me with the best technical experience. But my ideal experience may not line up with yours. Experiment with various options before settling on one. (Juice downloads podcasts into a directory that Media Monkey watches. Media Monkey will then add and remove files to my MP3 player as I add and remove them from my hard drive.)

If you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t want to worry about it, just want “it” to work and have the cash, get an iPod. If you’re on a limited budget and are willing to get your hands dirty, don’t get an iPod.

After you settle into your new multimedia experience environment, start looking for podcasts which fit your persona. I’ve found that many of the radio and news shows in my area provide an audio recording of the show in podcast form. To the right, you’ll find a few of my favorites which deal with a more technical genre.

Any vehicle we have in our family must be able to handle a portable media player. (Driving with headphones is illegal in most states.) There are a plethora of car stereos which provide you with an auxiliary input (looks like a headphone jack) which will allow you to pipe your iPod or MP3 player into your car’s sound system. If your car doesn’t have one, upgrading a car stereo can be very simple… especially when they can be installed for free by the store where you purchase it from. (Very important… find out what the parts will cost. Some cars with an integrated audio bus can cost an extra $400 dollars.) If your car has a cassette deck, a $20 adapter will provide you with the same functionality.

I find the commute to work is fun and mind-engaging with podcasts. The radio hosts work on my timetable. I can play, pause, rewind and fast forward at any time. The best part, I’m not a slave to the mindless dribble that comes from my car radio while I drive.

Before we dig into my point of view, I’d like to discuss how Internet and media inter-mesh on the Xbox 360. Via the Marketplace, I can browse through different TV shows and movies. I select and purchase the videos I want, which are then downloaded to the Xbox 360. The size of the download can vary depending on the running time and quality of the video. An episode of Smallville will be much smaller than the HD version of Superman Returns. The larger the download, the longer it will take to transfer the video to your console. Because the video needs to be stored on your Xbox 360, you’ll need to have a large enough Memory Stick or Hard Drive.

Right now, the Marketplace only has a few hundred TV episodes and movies. I predict that Microsoft is going to make an even bigger push in the very near future. A good example is the impending release of the Xbox 360 Elite. This model will come with a black cover and an HDMI output. On top of that, it will come bundled with a whopping 120 gigabyte hard drive. This is a huge improvement over the 20 gigabytes available currently… and the most telling sign of the direction Microsoft is moving. Game profile information is very small. In most cases, a memory stick is sufficient. But when you start downloading content, that’s where 20 gigs may feel a little cramped.

The one drawback to Microsoft’s game plan is how they monetize the system. In order to purchase games and TV shows and movies, you need to by Microsoft’s monopoly money. You get about 80 points per dollar which can be purchased in 500 point increments. The basic design of the system is so that Microsoft always wins. It’s very difficult to end up with a zero balance on your account. I really enjoy the fact that I can download TV episodes and movies. However, I think that the price for TV shows and older movies is a bit high. While Microsoft will benefit from it’s current revenue model, it would do better to incorporate two other data models as well.

The first revenue model has been in place for decades. Commercials. To be honest, I have no problem with commercials on TV. I accept it as a part of life. This could be incorporated into the downloadable TV shows. Of course, Microsoft would need to make it possible to disable the fast forward button during commercials. That’s a given. (Imagine how much money Microsoft could make if there was a bar on the bottom of the commercial saying you could skip the commercial set for only 20 credits. They’d rake it in!) In fact, offer both commercial and commercial free versions. Let the user decide if they want to dish out money for an uninterrupted episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

The second revenue model has only recently become a mainstream money maker. Subscriptions. A key example would be my Netflix subscription. I pay a monthly fee and Netflix mails me the movies I’ve preselected and put into my movie queue. I get a new DVD each time they receive one that I’ve mailed back. Microsoft could easily incorporate this. They could in essence download movies (much quicker then sending them by mail) from a movie queue. After you delete a previewed move from your hard drive, they let you download another. However, I would point out that many DVD enthusiasts purchase the DVD because they have access to the extras. Either include the extras or make the subscription price and terms more appealing.

There are two key factors to taking over the market. Overall, it’s determined by the company/person to get to the market first and then second, be so easy and affordable to use, that it attracts the largest portion of the market to become the standard. (TiVo anyone?) If Microsoft can use these features to attract more followers to the Xbox crowd, they’ll make money hand over fist.

What do you do at this point? What’s your plan of action? When was the last time you made a copy of all your important details? If you can’t answer any of these questions, you have a choice. You could stop reading right now under the presumption that this crisis will never happen to you. Your other option is to write these questions down and start searching for the answers. In this article, I’ll touch the basic concepts you’ll need in order to have a disaster recovery plan.

One Man’s Junk is Another Man’s Data

What are we referring to when we talk about important data? Important data is anything on your computer you can’t lose. I’m not talking about the video clip of someone riding a fire hose or the exploding whale. When I think of important data, pictures come to mind. My wife and I have about 3 gigabyte of pictures that we would not be able to replace. My wife has a collection of bookmarks. I keep track of all my passwords and important information on the computer. Anything in the My Documents folder is gold. (… because I only keep the important information in the My Documents folder) On top of that, if I were to lose all my Outlook information (even with Gmail you should keep a backup), I’d lose track of all my correspondents. The loss of any of these items would be devastating. These are important data.

More Than One Way to Skin a Cat

There’s more than one way to lose your data. I hope that my introduction wasn’t too scary (but scary enough to keep your reading.) However, this is just one way. Another thread comes from viruses which can infect your computer and destroy your data. Yes, Anti-virus software does protect your computer, but it isn’t infallible. All operating systems are able to be compromised. Kids have been know to “accidentally” delete important family data. (In truth, I plead guilty to this last one. Sorry Mom.) Another less common way to lose data is through a natural disaster, such as a fire or flood.

It all comes down to keeping your data safe. Thinking ahead can save you time, aggravation and a heap of money.

What is a Backup

What is a backup? Stand up and walk backwards. Just kidding.

In essence, a backup consists of making a copy of important data in a way that it can, if needed, be restored at a later time. Let’s think of it this way. Let’s say my grandfather took a picture of his vintage Ford Model T. Over time, the car falls into disrepair. Many, many, many years later I open the garage and find it with a coat of dust and a little worse for wear. Being the car enthusiast I am, I decide to repair the car to its pristine state. Luckily, my grandfather still has the photographs taken when the car was in its prime. If my grandfather had enough foresight to take pictures of every aspect of the car, I would be able to restore it to its original condition.

Well, that’s what we’re doing with a backup. We’re taking pictures of your hard drive so later on down the road, we can bring that data back.

What to Use to Backup Your Data

I’m going to be using the word “media” a lot throughout the rest of this article. Please let me define this word for you. Media refers to the object you’re storing the data on, not the device that does all the work. So, a CD is a piece of media but not the CD-Writer. When backing up your data, you’re storing it on a piece of media. In general, media can be referred to as optical or magnetic.

Optical media includes CDs and DVDs. CDs can store 700 megabytes of data whereas DVDs can store 4,700 megabytes of data. The most common and inexpensive CD/DVDs can only be written to once. There are CDs and DVDs which can be written to multiple times. These are generally more expensive. I prefer using the single write media. Optical media will retain its data for a period of 5 to 7 years. Magnets and magnetic fields will not damage optical media.Magnetic media includes external hard drives and tape cartridges. (Technically hard drives aren’t media. However, we’re referring to an external hard drive specifically used for backing up data. We’ll let it slide this one time.) Tapes and external hard drives can store up to 800 gigabytes each. External hard drives are the new craze. It’s just a box with a hard drive in it which you connect to your computer via USB or Firewire. While the amount of space is tremendous, there are more moving parts in a hard drive than in a DVD (none) or a tape cartridge. In the long run, the tape cartridges are less expensive.

I would like to take a moment to talk about Online Data Storage. Companies around the globe offer to backup your data through by way of the Internet. The plus side is that this is easy to use and your backups are harder to lose. However, on the flip side, you need to check the reliability of the company you’re trusting your data with. In addition, backing up your computer via the Internet is more time consuming. Depending on your needs, most people should consider using single write CDs or DVDs. They’re very inexpensive and if you’re backing up correctly, you shouldn’t need to keep a CD or DVD for a long period of time. If you’re using anything more than 5 DVDs per backup, start pricing tape drive solution.

How to Backup Data

There are hundreds or programs that will help you backup your data. In most cases, when you buy and external hard drive, DVD writer or tape drive, it will come with backup software bundled with the hardware. Make sure the program meets your needs before you use it.

When I look at backup software, I make sure it has a way to backup my data securely. If someone were to get a hold of the DVD with my backup, I don’t want them to be viewing sensitive information, such as bank statements. Make sure that the program will require a password if that piece of media is accessed.

Next I verify that it will save my preferences for backing up data. It would be tedious for me to select each directory I need saved each and every time I wanted to backup my data. If my preferences can be saved as a profile, then anytime I want to backup my data, I select the appropriate profile. This is especially good if you have a home based business. You can keep the backup of business data separate from personal data.

Last of all, I look a program that’s easy to use and intuitive. I want to be able to backup and restore data without needing to dig through manuals. A good software program should be easy to navigate. You should be able to accomplish the basic backup task in 5 clicks or less.

Full Backup versus Partial Backup

When planning your backup strategy, you’ll need to decide if you wish to perform a partial or full backup of your hard drive. When you perform a full backup, the entire hard drive is being backed up. You’re not only backing up your data, but all your programs and your operating system. To me, the operating system and programs are the dead weight. They take up a lot of room on the backup compared to the data I really want saved. This is why I prefer a partial backup. I select the My Documents directory and a few other choice areas. Anything else can be reinstalled. This drops the amount of data I backup from 250 gigabytes to 15 gigabytes. That’s 2 or 3 DVDs instead of 55 DVDs (300 CDs).

Frequency of Backups

Back up your data often. But how often is often? If your a average home user, I recommend backing up your drive every month. If you’re a medium sized business, weekly backups will be sufficient. If you’re even bigger than that, government regulated, or just plain paranoid, daily backups are the way to go.

There’s no right answer. Just think about how often you use your computer. If you were to loose one week of data, is that bad? What about two weeks? Find the point where you say “I can’t lose that much work” and go from there.

Rotation of Media

Another key point is that you should be rotating your backups. I recommend that you keep the last three backups on hand. For example, let’s say I’ve been backing up my drive for the past three months. I’m now doing my fourth backup. Of these four backups, I’m going to destroy the oldest backup. This will leave me with three backups again.

A tape drive is different since the media is reusable. In that case, I would have three tapes. When it comes time to backup my data, I use the oldest tape.

By rotating the media, I have a greater buffer. If I accidentally delete a file, but don’t realize it until 2 months later, I can go back those two months to retrieve the file. It’s not lost forever because it was destroyed or written over.

Complete Annihilation of Old Backups

I cannot stress this enough. When its time to throw away a piece of media used to backup your data, destroy it completely. If you’re throwing away a CD/DVD, it should be safely reduced to shards. I can’t stress safety enough here since those shards are sharp. When shattering media, the shards can become flying razors.

Tapes and Hard Drives should be decommissioned by a software or hardware solution. If the media is still usable (you can still read from and write to it), use software that erases the data completely. This is done by writing over the drive various times until the overwritten data is not recoverable. If the media is broken (the drive is defective or the tape is broken), some companies offer a service where the media will be placed in a special appliance that runs super magnets over it multiple times which completely erases the data.

The key thing here is that we don’t want any information to be recovered by someone who is picking through your garbage. Even if the data was password protected or encrypted, there’s no guarantee that someone can’t get into it. Identity theft is a lucrative market and passwords are becoming less of a deterrent.

Off Site

Backing up your data isn’t enough. You need to keep your backups safe. It may seem like a good idea to keep your backups on a shelf in a computer room. However, if your house is flooded or burns to the ground, your efforts are in vain. All that hard work is down the tube.

The solution? Keep your backups someplace secure but not in the same place as where your computer is kept. At work, I have my own locker. No one can access it except for me. So, when I perform a backup, I take that backup to work. I put it in my locker and forget about it. If I need to recover data, I know where it is. (The building where I work can better withstand an earthquake or fire than my home.)

Note: If you’re thinking of keeping your media in the house fireproof safe, think again. Most media aren’t trustworthy if you get above 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Paper burns at 452 Fahrenheit. Verify your fireproof safe will keep the interior cool enough for your media in case of extreme heat.

Conclusion

Now, if you haven’t been backing up your data and your hard drive does byte the dust, there are companies that can recover a fair amount of your data. However, the recovery process does not guarantee all your data will be recovered. The process is also very expensive. (Hundreds to even thousands of dollars.) By performing the preventative measure of backing up your data, you will save yourself time and money if the unthinkable happens.