Your Data Folders

Here is something thing I would like you to consider when you are installing any application on your computer.

As windows has matured over time the operating system has made it more difficult for the average end user to find and backup files and folders that are created and used for your applications. Windows XP actually locks the "Program Files" folder from access from any other computer in your network.

I would hope that most applications for sale today would give you the opportunity to select your own path for the "stuff" the applications create or manipulate. Consider the following. You have an accounting or checkbook program and even though you can share the data folder on your network in "Multi User Mode", You can not copy it from one computer's Program files folder to another because XP makes the "Program files" folder "read only". The same may apply to a program like "Street Atlas". You sit at your Desk and plan a trip but then how do you get that planning onto the laptop when its time to head out the door?

Another concern and perhaps the grand daddy of all is how do you "Backup" all this important data for many applications without making a mirror image of your hard drive or spending lots of time setting up a backup application to hunt and peck for all these folders.

The simplest way I have found to accomplish this is to create a "centralized path" in the "Root" directory of  my PC called "Data Folders". This folder becomes the "Base Folder" for all the applications that allow me to select the location for "their" data folders. I use this "Data Folder" path for all the applications that add/change data on a regular basis. I DO NOT use it for things like Digital pictures or Music files. The files in these paths typically do not get modified on a regular basis and I do not want to bog down my daily backup with these potentially large folders.

That is not to say that these folders do not get backed up to DVDs or to other Hard Drives in the network on a regular basis, Its just that they do not get included in the daily distribution of the every changing data in my "Data Folders" path.

One last item I would suggest for protecting your Data is if you have a laptop with a wireless network card. We all know that aside from having backups to DVDs or other media that can be removed from a PC or disconnected from electric power, We run the risk of an electrical surge or spike that could destroy the delicate nature of a PC hard drive. In a wired network this surge can travel around a house on the network wires themselves. I typically keep my laptop in the vehicle I drive daily. This laptop is updated daily with my data folders. Because it is not connected to my house electric or my wired network, it offers one more level of  protection from thunder storms and whatever. Of course a Flash drive that is only connected when actually doing the backup is yet another level of protection.

If I sound paranoid about data loss then so be it. For years I have relied on the accumulation of information on my computers and simply want to soften the blow should I ever need to face a situation where that data is no longer available to me.

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