观察下列漫画铺路:备份的学问

What Files Should You Backup On Your Windows PC?

电脑上哪些文件要备份？

    Everybody always tells you to make sure that you are backing up your PC, but what does that really mean? And what files do you actually need to backup? Today we’ll walk you through the basics of backing up your PC, what you should back up, and why.

每个人都告诉你要时刻备份电脑，但他们说的什么意思啊？你真正需要备份什么？本文就告诉你电脑备份的基本，什么要备份以及为什么要备份？

   Of course, these rules won’t fit every scenario, so you’ll need to use a little common sense—think about what is most important to you on your PC, and make sure that you’ve figured out how to backup those files.

正所谓“有原则就有例外”，不是每条原则都通用的，有时候得用用常识。想想你电脑上最重要的是什么东西，确保自己知道怎么备份它

   Note: this post was originally written last year, but since today is World Backup Day, we’re republishing it for everybody today.

注意：本文写于去年，但既然今天是“世界备份日”，还是拿出来晒晒吧。

  The All-Important Rule of Backups

备份的宗旨

  The primary principle of backing up your data is that any important data should exist in two or more physical locations at once. You cannot create a backup and delete the original, or else it is no longer really a backup.

 备份数据的主要原则就是所有你认为重要的数据都有两份以上的物理备份。你不要做了备份就把原来的数据删掉了，这样就不叫备份了。

  You might think this is obvious, but you’d be surprised how often I’ve been approached by readers that lost their data after their “backup” drive died.

 你不要认为这很理所当然，如果你知道有多少读者这样“备份”他们的数据后，然后硬盘挂掉了再来找我，你会很吃惊的。

  What Should You Use for Backing Up Your PC?  

怎么备份电脑数据

  There are lots of different applications that you can use to make backups of your files, and there’s even one built into Windows… It doesn’t matter which tool you use as long as it does a decent job of creating backups.

 很多软件可以备份数据，甚至windows都有内置的备份软件。其实，“不管黑猫白猫，能抓到老鼠的就是好猫”。可见啊，常识还是很通用的哦。

   Local Backups

本地备份

   It’s important to create local backups to an external drive or another PC for speed of restoring files should something bad happen, and also because this is going to be the quickest way to create backups.

把数据备份到外置硬盘或者电脑上很重要，这样恢复起来比较块，而且这也是最快的备份方法

   We’ve also got guides to show you how to use Backup and Restore in Windows, GFI Backup,Macrium Reflect, and even Simple Backup in Linux—but the tool isn’t that important—what you are backing up is.

我们也会指导你使用windows下的备份恢复，GFI Backup,Macrium Reflect,设置Linux下的Simple Backup。但用什么软件不是重要的，重要的是备份什么数据！

   Online Backups

在线备份

   There are a number of paid online backup services like Mozy, Carbonite, Spideroak, andJungledisk, and there are also some file sync services like Dropbox and SugarSync that provide backup type of capability. These are all excellent secondary backup services, but probably shouldn’t replace a regular backup just because they will take a long time to restore.

有很多在线数据备份付费服务： Mozy, Carbonite, Spideroak, andJungledisk，有些文件同步服务也有一定的备份数据功能,比如 Dropbox 和 SugarSync 。这些在线服务都是不错的后备备份法，但还是不如一般备份，因为很费时。

   Note: if you’re looking for a great way to keep a folder in sync between PCs and accessible from anywhere, Dropbox rocks. We love it. Otherwise, you should probably check out Mozy, since it has a unique ability to create local backups as well as online backups.

注意：如果你在寻找不同电脑上的文件同步服务，Dropbox非常给力。（译者：不过我们的GFW更给力！）我爱死它了。你也可以看看Mozy，因为它出来在线备份，也可以本地备份。

   System Image Backups Rather than simply backing up files, you can create a complete backup of your system that can be restored over top of your system. The only problem with creating these type of backups is that they require a real lot of drive space. The best bet is to create an image when your system is up and running and everything is installed, and then you can use it to more easily restore everything rather than reinstalling everything manually.

系统镜像备份

除了单纯的文件备份，你还可以试试系统镜像备份，在恢复系统的时候很给力哦。唯一的问题就是备份的镜像文件太大了。所以一般就是在系统刚装完的时候，把该打的补丁打了，要装的软件装了，再备份下系统。这样重装系统的时候就不用重新来过了。

   We’ve got guides to help you create a system image using the built-in tools in Windows 7 or Vista, how to restore from that system image, how to make a drive image using an Ubuntu Live CD, or even how to do it with a freeware application called DriveImageXML. If you’re looking for a paid solution that works really well, you can check out Acronis.

我们网站上有专门的文章指导你如何用windows7/vista内置工具做系统备份，如何从系统镜像恢复备份，如何使用Ubuntu Live CD给分区做备份，甚至如何使用免费的软件DriveImageXML。如果你想要服务好的付费服务，你可以看看Acronis。

   What Files Should You Backup?  

要备份什么文件呢？

   The most important files to backup are probably your documents, pictures, music, and other user files, but they are not the only files that you need to backup. Let’s walk through some of them.

要备份的最重要的文件大概是你的文档，图片，音乐以及其他用户文件，但要备份的不单单是这些，请接着看下去吧

   Documents: You should backup your entire documents folder all the time. This should be a no-brainer.

我的文档：总是备份“我的文档”，这个没得说，不解释。

   Music: If you’ve paid lots of money for MP3 downloads, you’ll probably be sad to lose them. Make sure to include this folder. Note: if you’re an iTunes user, you should make sure to backup your iTunes folder, which is thankfully usually inside this directory.

我的音乐：下载mp3花了不少钱吧，没了的话很伤心吧。（译者：这个，钱没有，但没了也是很伤心的，辛苦收集的呢）。所以要记得备份这个文件夹哦。注意：如果你用iTunes，确保你也备份了iTunes文件夹，幸好它就在”我的音乐“里。

   Pictures & Videos: It’s really sad when I get emails from people saying their hard drive died and they lost all their pictures of their family. The photos might not have actually costed you anything, but you’ll probably be more sad about losing memories than paying for music downloads again.

图片&视频：当我收到读者邮件说他们的硬盘挂了，损失了他们和家人的照片时，对此我也深表同情啊。这些照片可能不值什么，但照片上遗失的记忆可能比下载mp3让你荷包吐血更让你痛苦。

   Desktop Email: If you’re using Outlook or Windows Live Mail, make absolutely certain that you’ve backed up the files from these applications. Outlook stores all your email in a .PST file, and here’s how to find it.

邮件：如果你用Outlook或者windows live Mail写邮件，一定要确保备份邮件。Outlook把邮件保存在.PST 文件里，告诉你怎么找到它。

   Application Settings: If you look within the AppData folders, you’ll see directories for each and every application you’re running. These settings can often be restored from a backup so you don’t have to tweak everything again. Just head into C:UsersUsernameAppData to see the Local, Roaming, and LocalLow folders that contain many settings for your applications.

软件配置文件夹：在AppData文件夹里，你可以看到每个你在运行的软件的文件夹。这些配置文件夹都可以备份起来，这样重装系统时候后再安装软件就不用去配置了。在C:UsersUsernameAppData 可以看到这些配置文件夹

   Virtual Machines: If you use virtual machines for real work, you should probably create a backup of your virtual machines at some point. We wouldn’t necessarily recommend backing these up every single night, but you should at least consider some type of backup plan.

虚拟机：如果你用虚拟机做事的话，最后也备份下。不推荐也不必要明天都备份虚拟机。但至少得有备份的计划吧。

  Bookmarks: Most browsers other than Internet Explorer actually make it difficult to backup your bookmarks using Windows Backup, but the much better option is to sync your bookmarks to the cloud. Naturally, we’ve got a full list of all the bookmark syncing services that you can use. If you’d rather use local backup, you can simply backup the application settings folder and restore that—this works especially well for Firefox in our experience.

书签：系统备份很难备份到除了ie以外的浏览器的书签，但更好的选择是把书签备份到”云“上。当然，我们有一大堆书签同步服务。如果你想本地备份，只要备份浏览器的配置文件夹就ok了。---这个法子据我经验来看对火狐很好用哦

   Backup These Files More Easily Instead of trying to find all those locations, backup your entire Users folder, which is at C:UsersUsername in Windows 7 or Vista, and C:Documents and SettingsUsername for Windows XP. This will include all of those files, unless you’ve stored them somewhere else.

轻松备份这些文件夹

把整个用户文件夹备份起来，就不用一个一个配置文件夹去备份了。在win7的位置是 C:UsersUsername ;XP是在C:Documents and SettingsUsername。一般是在这里，除非你给转移了。

   Files You Should Not Bother Backing Up  

没必要备份的文件

   There’s simply no reason to backup these directories:

备份这些文件夹根本没必要！

   Windows: There’s almost never a reason to backup your Windows directory, as you’re going to have to reinstall the whole thing anyway, so this backup will likely do you no good.

windows文件夹：永远也没必要备份windows文件夹，因为你怎么都要重装系统了，备份这个有个p用啊。

    Program Files: You’re going to have to reinstall your applications if your computer dies and you have to reinstall. Why bother backing up all these files?

程序文件夹：系统都得重装了，软件当然也得重装了。备份这个文件夹也没鸟用。

    It’s worth noting that if you create a system image backup, you won’t have to reinstall all of your applications, and backing up these folders would still be pointless.

如果你都做了系统镜像备份，你也没必要重装软件，所以说备份程序文件夹一点用都没有。

   When should you backup? The best bet is to backup your files on a fairly regular basis–daily if possible. If you’re using an online backup solution, they are often configured to immediately start syncing any changed files when your PC is idle for a little while. This can be a great way to keep your files safe without having to wait for the next backup.

什么时候要备份？

最好是尽可能每天都备份。如果你用的是在线备份服务，一般来说软件都会设置成在系统空闲的时候自动备份。这倒不错，省的自己麻烦。

   Hopefully these tips will help you backup your files and keep you protected. Be sure to check out our checklist guide for reinstalling Windows in the unfortunate event that you do need to start over from scratch.

希望本文的指导对你有帮助。如果最不幸的事情发生了，你不得不重装系统，那看看重装系统必做这篇文章吧

Don’t forget the most important rule: any important data should exist in two or more physical locations at once.

最后提醒一下别忘了最重要的原则：任何重要的数据必须同时有两个以上的物理备份！！！