Note: Work in progress!
Believe or not but this is the most important tasks you need to be able to do on regular basis. Backup can be scheduled and done automatically, but the restore has to be tested regularly. You need to do this in order to make sure that backup works correctly and your proficient in backup and restore tasks. There is nothing worst to find out during the real emergency or disaster that your backup task had failed after the last time you updated your system or you really do not know how to restore your system.
In order to define working backup and restore strategy you need to identify the risks you are facing and the impact that the bad event could have on your digital life.
The bad news first. As we are using our computers more and more in our lives, we are becoming more and more dependant on them and the data stored inside computer memory. What that means? It means that computer systems are becoming more easy to use, but the price is that the same systems become more complex. The more complex is one system the more risks are threatening its functionality.
The good news is that if you are proactive and prepared for those risks, there is nothing to be afraid. Also if you are prepared and something bad happen you are going to receive big pay-off (especially if you are running business). How? You may ask. For example in case of natural disaster your computer system most likely will be destroyed, but at the same time others' systems will be destroyed. If your restore your system first you going to win over your competition. But what is the pay-off if you do not have business? In that case you are going to be able to concentrate to more important task of rebuilding your life and restored data from your system can help.
The sad fact is that today many people do not realize how dependent they are on the computer systems. As System Administrator I can testify how unprepared many companies are. In case of disaster affecting the company's IT infrastructure most of them will be out of business. This is true even if the same companies are able to restore their systems, but not quickly enough.
As you identify the risks affecting your computer system please write them down. Why? Usually defining backup and restore strategy is process that is taking some time. In case of home user it is taking long time. During that time you will find yourself coming back to your notes time after time. But more important is that you need to do new risk assessment every time your make change to your system and the notes are 'life saver'.
Now it is time to identify all the risks. You can start by identifying the sub-system on which your computer system depends. There are many sub-systems, but the most important and the most often ignored is the electrical power. As thing stands today if you do not have electricity your computer system is dead. But before you run to buy UPS or/and generator, you need to answer the question: "What will my life look like without my computer system?"
The Electricity is powering our lives. Without it our technology is useless. But in the scope of the risk assessment needed to define backup and restore strategy we can safely assume that we have source of electrical power. Is it OK to make this assumption? What about if there is natural disaster and the power grid is down! Well, backup and restore strategy is only small part of bigger disaster recovery strategy. The disaster recovery strategy will have to deal with the task securing enough power.
So in that case are we done with this risk? Absolutely Not! Why? Because is not only question of having power, but what quality is it. Can you imagine the situation? You are working on some very important document. There is summer storm out side. The lighting strikes some transformer very far away. The grid protection systems safely disconnect effected equipment with only minor damages. But the same time the grid will most likely experience some power fluctuation and your computer system reboots. You just lost hours of hard work. After initial anger, most likely you will learn to save your work often. If this had happen to you before, you are saving your work often, but if the power surge happens during saving your data you may find out letter that your disk is completely inaccessible. Today computers have build in safeguards against sudden power lost. The hard disk will try to poll out the read/write heads before the disk stops spinning and scratches the disk surfaces. The power supply is design to handle small power surges, the operating system (OS) is design to tolerate some file system errors and can fix them, but you still need to shutdown the computer before your disconnect the power. Failing to do so could spell disaster for your data.
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Note: Work in progress!
There is many away to backup your PC and many tools. The simple true is that there is no perfect solution. Most likely you need to use set of tools in order to protect your data from all possible threats.
How other users solved the problem of backup and restore:
Data Recovery Software - Hard Drive & File System Utilities: Runtime Software
What is 'Live CD'? The Live CD allows you to boot your OS directly from the CD-ROM. This is very useful if your hard drive is broken, the OS on the hard drive is corrupted, or you want to run some maintenance task like cold backup, disk imaging or full restore of your system.
Many OSes (like Ubuntu Linux, Gentoo Linux and etc.) have this ability, but not Microsoft Windows XP. What Microsoft offer is called Windows PE. Where PE stands for 'Pre-install Enviroment'. WinPE is used by Microsoft and OEM vendors to install the Windows on your computer. WinPE provides you with command line interface where you can create custom script to install your Windows. This is over simplified description of WinPE. For detail information please check Microsoft's site for Windows PE.
Using Windows PE required great level of knowledge of Windows and advance use of command line interface. Manually you can start the windows own graphical engine and run some programs with GUI. Unfortunately Microsoft do not provide any light-weight desktop management.
There is a product called BratPE Builder. Full information about it can be found here. With this program you can build very custom installation of your windows that can be run directly from the CD. The best part is that you can add (or remove) plug-ins and customise it based on your needs.
Here we are going to build Live CD that allows as to create cold image (backup) of your system drive and restore if you need to do so.
Lets begin.
1. Download the latest version PE builder (self-installing package)
2. Download Runtimes DiskImageXML plug-in
3. Copy your Windows XP CD.
4. Slip Service Pack 2 for Windows XP (only if your original Windows XP CD is older and don't have SP2)
5. Install PE Builder
6. Start PE Builder
7. add Runtimes plug-in DiskImageXML
8. Create Live CD or ISO image of your Live CD
9. Test your CD.
Your are done.