Data loss and data corruption are among the biggest threats in information security. It is critical to have a sound plan to preserve your data. Data backup and restoration are the most effective means to reduce the impact of data loss and corruption. First of all, you need to understand the needs of your data protection and developing a data backup/restoration accordingly. Secondly, you need to understand the options available in the Windows Vista environment and other tools available to assist you in the execution of data protection plan.
It is very different n terms of data backup/restoration for Windows Home user verses Business users. In the following table, the backup and recovery options in Windows Vista are presented:
|
Purpose |
Solution |
Data type preserved |
Backup time/frequency |
|
Backup of specific critical data |
Files and folder backup |
Application and personal data |
As frequent as necessary, depends on how often the data change and how much |
|
Recover system when OS configuration is corrupted |
System restore point |
System configuration |
As frequent as necessary depends how often the system configuration changes |
|
Backup of open files and version control files |
Shadow copy |
Application and personal data |
As frequent as necessary |
|
Complete system backup |
System image |
All |
This backup is time consuming. Do it periodically to reduce impact of major system crash. |
|
Recovery time |
Storage Media |
Performing user |
Vista version |
|
When any file in main system lost or corrupted |
Any media large enough to handle the backup data such as external hard-drive, CD/DVD etc. |
All |
All |
|
When system configuration is corrupted, or it is necessary to go back to an earlier version of configuration. |
This backup is within the OS on the hard-drive only |
Admin |
All |
|
When it is necessary to recover an earlier version of file |
By default it is on hard-drive; but you may configure the destination location for saving the backup files. |
All |
Business, Enterprise and Ultimate |
|
Recovery system after major system crash, which is much faster than rebuild the system, all applications and data from scratch. |
It requires a high volume storage, like hard-drive, at least a DVD. |
Admin |
Business, Enterprise and Ultimate |