Backup guide

1 WHAT IS A BACKUP?

A backup is a copy of valued data, created as a replacement for situations when the original data is

lost or corrupted.

2 THE NEED FOR BACKUP

Any kind of valued data should be backed up. A backup can be useful after a hard disk failure,

accidental deletion, virus attack or any kind of data loss.

3 WHEN TO BACKUP?

The time to backup is now. It is advised to backup valuable data before it is planned to make any

changes (what could cause data loss) on a computer system.

4 HOW OFTEN TO BACKUP?

Important files should be saved as often as possible, but it is sufficient to save a file once per backup.

Backup software offer capability to completely automate the backup process. This means, the data

can be backed up automatically. A computer can do the backup during lunch breaks or meetings: it

does not need any control during this procedure, only electricity…

The frequency of backup procedures and creation of new data should be comparable. It is easier to

recover from losing one day's work, than a week's work, or a month's work, or a year's work.

5 WHAT TO BACKUP?

While creating a backup strategy, it is advised to make a checklist of everything, what should be

included in a backup. The most important data to backup is what would be difficult or impossible to

replace such as experimental results, emails, contacts, written documents, etc. The “How to backup“

part of this document will show the necessary steps.

There are special cases, when it is also important to save the whole working software system, because

it is hard and time consuming to set up everything after a system crash because of a wrongly chosen

parameter/driver, etc. In these cases the system image (including operating system, all of the installed

software and settings) can be saved by a certain backup software (hard disk imaging software). This

means if the system becomes corrupted, all installed programs and settings can be restored from a

backup to a stage was saved before the disaster. The necessary steps will be discussed in the Windows

built-in solution and macOS 10.12 Sierra chapters.

6 WHERE TO BACKUP?

The most obvious solution is to backup using another built-in hard drive. The large drives are cheap

nowadays, but this choice does not offer solution in case of physical damage of the local computer or

virus attack.

An external hard drive offers more flexibility (e.g. the data is easily transportable), so this solution can

be good for experimental data. It is considerable, that the drawbacks of the internal disks are not

solved here.

The network-based storages are very good solutions for backups, but their storage is limited and the

extension is not so cheap. They are protected against physical damages occurred on the local

computer and also offer some backup option. The Helmholtz personal network drives (H:\) are capable

to store documents and smaller amount (1-2GB) of processed data. The experimental data should be

stored on our new NAS (IBMI-NS).

7 TYPES OF BACKUP

7.1 FULL BACKUP A complete copy of everything is necessary to store in a second exemplar. When a backup procedure

is set up, the first backup will be full. Since everything is saved, this process is slow and needs relative

lot of storage.

7.2 DIFFERENTIAL BACKUP The backup software looks at which files have changed since a full backup was made. Then creates

copies of all the files that are different from the ones in the full backup.

Executing a differential backup more than once will copy all the files that have changed since the last

full backup, even there are already identical copies of those files in a previous differential backup.

7.3 INCREMENTAL BACKUP The backup software creates copies of files that have changed since previous backups of any type (full,

differential or incremental).

For example if a full backup was executed on Sunday, an incremental backup made on Monday, would

only contain files changed since Sunday. An incremental backup on Tuesday, would only contain files

changed since Monday, and so on.

8 HOW TO BACKUP?

As a general rule, it is advised to make a full backup, than a scheduled incremental backup offers

enough safety.

Set up a backup in a time window, when the implementer computer is turned on anyway (e.g. during

a lunchbreak or regular meetings).

8.1 MICROSOFT WINDOWS

8.1.1 The built-in solution (Windows 7)

The built-in solution of Microsoft Windows is designed for fulfilling the basic needs of a backup and it

can create differential backups. This means that the backup will be scheduled, but in the case of no

changes empty zipped files will be copied.

The Windows Backup is located in the Control Panel under Backup and Restore (with category view

under System and Security Backup and Restore). A backup wizard can be started with pressing the

“Set up backup” text. After a while a dialog box will appear where the place of saving should be

specified:

There is opportunity to choose between internal-, attached external- and network drive (for this press

the “Save on network…” button).

If the “Save on network…” option was selected, a new dialog box will appear where the network path

should be specified:

In this example a personal home drive (H: on Helmholtz computers) is specified, with the appropriate

SCIDOM username and password (Helmholtz username and pass). For detailed explanation please see

the how-to document about attaching network drives.

In the next steps the data should be selected. First choose “let me choose option”:

Then select the folder(s) with the important data.

If the “Include a system image of drives: …” option is also selected here, than Windows Backup will

save a file about the whole system (installed programs, drivers, are also included). This option needs

lot of storage place, please do not select it, if a network drive as saving location was selected.

The schedule can be set up in the next step. Select the appropriate timing and click on OK.

An overview will be shown in the last step, click on Save settings and exit to finish the procedure and

start the backup.

After a successful backup a special folder will be placed: it is named after the computer, where the

data was saved. There are further folders inside of this backup folder with time stamps (backup times)

and compressed files containing the saved data.

8.1.2 Cobian Backup 11 (Gravity)

The Cobian Backup is a –this time free (please check licensing carefully!)- backup program that can be

used to save data from its original location to other drives on the same computer or on the network.

The software is downloadable from the following link:

http://www.cobiansoft.com/cobianbackup.htm

8.1.2.1 Installation

The installation procedure is similar to a normal installation, there is only a screen where real

interaction needed. The running circumstances of the program and a network account should be

specified in this dialog box.

The program should be installed as a service and in case of network-based backup the domain and

username-password should be specified. In the SCIDOM domain (Helmholtz Zentrum München) this is

SCIDOM/Helmholtz.username and Helmholtz password (see below).

8.1.2.2 Setup

The program offers a clean user interface, where the backup jobs can be set up. Click on the marked

“+” sign to define a new backup:

The properties of the new backup job can be defined in the appearing window. A name is necessary,

and it is advised to use incremental backup, without separated timestamps (untick “Create separated

backup using timestamps”):

In the same window, but on the “Files” tab can be defined the data for backup (Source) and the

destination, as storage of the backup. A file explorer window (browse on local- and network drives)

will appear after clicking on “Add” in both cases:

The schedule of the backup should be set up as a last necessary step. There are several options to

choose between daily/weekly/monthly/specified days of week opportunities. An exact time point of

backup is also definable.

In the end of the setup procedure click on OK.

The software does the backup automatically, errors and more info are shown on the “Log” tab in the

main window and the icon on the taskbar.

After a successful backup a folder will be placed, which contains all of the files and (sub)folders of the

original data.

8.2 MACOS 10.12 SIERRA The macOS offers also built-in backup solution (Time Machine, located in System Preferences), it

works straightforward and its setup is also easy.

After starting Time machine, the backup disk (location) needs to be selected (click on Select Backup

Disk…)

Select a drive on the following dialog and click on “Use for Backup” or “Use Disk”.

In this solution, there is opportunity to exclude data from backup. For specify these files, select

Options on the main screen of Time Machine and add files/folders with the “+” symbol, like here:

If the selection is finished, click on Save.

As a last step thick the box before “Back Up Automatically” and close the dialog box. After this the

data will be saved automatically by the operating system.