In today’s age, it is critical to make backups of your data. No matter how sophisticated your computer is, the possibility of data loss due to fire, theft, hardware failure, etcetera is statistically inevitable. While unfortunate, a crashed computer should not slow anyone down with proper backups.

There are several methods to make personal backups, including automated software packages, but as the College of Design is in the process of implementing automated backups, the IT Staff is providing an interim solution for critical backups. “Critical Backups” is defined as data that you cannot perform your duties without. This includes email, browser bookmarks, College of Design related documents or any other material necessary for you to perform your job duties or do your classwork.

NOTE: All university email is already backed up on mail servers stored off site, no matter what program you use to check your email (Apple Mail, GroupWise, Microsoft Entourage, Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, etc.). The backups for email discussed here are solely for your local settings and folders. If you are unsure if you have local folders that need to be backed up, please speak with an IT Staff member or send an email to design_help@ncsu.edu.

While this page is aimed more toward employees, students can benefit from this advice as well. This page will cover how to backup email, bookmarks and documents on both Macintosh and Windows computers. If you have questions on how to back up other data, please ask one of the College of Design IT Staff members or send an email to design_help@ncsu.edu.

The first step to take, regardless of which operating system you’re running, is to decide what type of media to which you want to back up your data. The IT Lab has a limited number of CD-Rs available for Faculty and Staff ONLY. CD-Rs are the cheapest solution, which only hold 700 megabytes of data. There are CD-RWs (re-recordable CDs). DVD-Rs are a little more expensive and require a DVD recordable drive. They hold 4.7 gigabytes of data. External hard drives (FireWire and USB) hold the most space (up to 1 terabyte), but are also the most expensive.

NOTE: Before you attempt to back up ANYTHING, be sure to QUIT ALL OPEN PROGRAMS.

If you do not know which media to choose, please speak with one of the IT Staff or send an email to design_help@ncsu.edu. Once you have the proper media, click on the appropriate link for your operating system for further instructions.

Macintosh    |    Windows