Backing up your system falls into the same category as exercise, staying in touch, and church on Sunday: we don't do it often enough.

One wonders why. Just about everyone we know has experienced some sort of massive data loss because of a hardware failure, power surge, programming mistake, or undetected virus. Consider this: the "cyberglue" that holds your hard disk together is a hidden file called the File Allocation Table (FAT). It records the precise location and size of each of the thousands of files on your disk. The FAT is like any other file, except that losing it turns your computer files to electronic confetti. (This is why many computer viruses are designed by their nasty little authors to attack the FAT.) If it is in any way corrupted, if the section of hard disk containing the FAT happens to go bad, you'll lose everything. Programs, lists, documents. Hundreds of hours of work. Not a piece of it, not most of it. All of it. Poof! Just like that.

The chances of this happening to you will increase with the age of your computer and hard disk. When it happens, it can be either a momentary inconvenience or an unmitigated tragedy. (We've seen people lose their jobs because the system crashed and the backup was either missing, old, or unusable.)

The best way of backing up most systems is with a cartridge tape. You can purchase one, along with a few 40- or 80- gigabyte tapes, for about $250. With a cartridge tape system, you can insert the tape, start the program, and go to lunch. When you return, the contents of your hard disk will have been copied to the tape. Or you can program it to operate at night.

A faster and less-expensive option is to use PKZIP or WinZip, which compresses your files so that they will fit on one diskette or onto a small number of diskettes. For example, a Virginia state senate district -- about 65,000 records -- can be compressed onto five or six diskettes. PKZIP (along with its successor WinZip) is easily the most popular "shareware" program. It is available just about anywhere for free. You can get the Windows version by sending $29 to Nico Mak Computing, PO Box 540, Mansfield CT 06268. You can download a trial version from www.winzip.com.

To secure your Filpac or FRONTRUNNER system, the only files you really need to back up are your data files, i.e. your names, addresses and supporting records, which are the files with the extension *.KSH. On single-user systems they are stored in the C:\FR folder. If you've subscribed to our warranty and updates, then you don't need to back up anything else because you can simply download new program files from our website. (If you haven't, then you should back up the entire FR folder.)

Here is now you can use PKZIP to back up your Filpac or FRONTRUNNER data files:

Prepare one blank, formatted, high-density floppy diskette for every 10,000 records in your master file. Number each diskette. Then insert the first diskette. Go to the C prompt and do the following (assuming your diskette drive is A):

C:\> CD \FR

C:\FR> PKZIP FRFILES *.KSH

This will compress your data files (all those with the extension KSH) on your set of diskettes. The "zipped" file, which will contain compressed copies of the backed-up files, will be named FRFILES.ZIP. Next, you need to check the size of the FRFILES.ZIP:

C:\FR> DIR FRFILES.ZIP

If the size of FRFILES.ZIP is less than 1.38 megabytes (1,457,664 bytes), then you can simply copy it to a blank diskette:

C:\FR> COPY FRFILES.ZIP A:

It will say "one file(s) copied" if successful.

If FRFILES.ZIP is too big for one diskette, then you’ll need to "span" diskettes by using the following command:

C:\FR> PKZIP A:FRFILES *.KSH -&

By using the -& switch, you are enabling use of additional diskettes. The number of diskettes you ‘ll need is determined by dividing the size of FRFILES.ZIP by 1,457,664 (which, as we noted above, is the capacity of one diskette).

You should maintain a minimum of three sets of backup tapes or diskettes: one for Monday / Wednesday / Friday, one for Tuesday / Thursday / Saturday, and a weekly set to take home in case your computer is stolen or destroyed. In addition, you should try restoring your backups to another computer, just to make sure you've backed up properly. Replace your diskettes or tapes with new ones periodically; you cannot restore from a diskette that has gone bad.