Answer Line: Quick and Easy Data Backups to CD-RW Discs

What's the best way to use a CD-RW drive to create backups?

Charles Green, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

You don't need to make frequent full backups of your entire hard drive to CD-R or CD-RW discs. Waiting to swap discs manually makes creating such backups a long, boring process.

The only files you need to back up are the ones you've created or changed yourself. So concentrate on anything that isn't already on a commercial CD, or available via download from the Internet (and remember to save the registration numbers of any shareware you've registered). If you use Windows 98 or Me, the folders that you need for performing regular backups are probably on the C: drive under the names My Documents, Windows\Application Data, Windows\Desktop, Windows\Favorites, and Windows\Start Menu.

Windows 2000 and XP make things easier by putting all the necessary folders in one location: C:\Documents and Settings. This folder holds everything you need to back up, but Documents and Settings contains one subfolder you definitely shouldn't include in your incremental backup: Temporary Internet Files. To place this folder in a new location, first open Internet Explorer; then select Tools, Internet Options, click the Settings button (located under the General tab), and click the Move Folder button.

You'll also need backup software. Microsoft Backup, which ships with Windows 98 and Me, doesn't officially support CD-RW, but it will work with a program such as Roxio's DirectCD (which probably came with your CD-RW drive). DirectCD allows Windows to write transparently to CDs as if they were large floppies. You have to make sure that the entire contents of the folders listed above will fit onto a single disc. Fortunately, this will not be a problem for most people.

You may have to install Microsoft Backup manually. If you're using Windows 98, select Start, Settings, Control Panel, double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon, and click the Windows Setup tab. Scroll down and double-click the System Tools listing. Check the Backup listing, click OK twice, and follow the prompts. If you're using Windows Me, see " More Tools Not in Win Me" in my October 2001 column.

Like Win Me, Windows 2000 comes with a version of Microsoft Backup that doesn't officially support CD-RW. But in this case, the program doesn't unofficially support CD-RW, either.

Plenty of third-party backup programs do work with CD-RW, however. I recently test-ran NewTech Infosystems' Backup Now (see Figure 1), Dantz Development's Retrospect Express Backup, and Iomega's QuikSync. All three back up specific folders to a CD-RW disc, though QuickSync also requires use of DirectCD or a similar program.

All three programs let you perform full backups of every file in the selected folders, plus incremental backups of files that you've changed since the last backup. (The first two also automatically back up files you've created since your last backup.) Do full backups every week or two, and incremental backups every day.

In the past, I've recommended using CD-R discs rather than CD-RW discs to archive important files. But for daily backups, the ability to erase and reuse a CD-RW disc is more important than the added reliability of a CD-R disc.