Remote Desktop Backup

What is it?
IT Services regularly attempts to back up all Juneau campus desktop PC computers, unless otherwise specified. The backup tool looks over the network at night and makes a copy of the Documents & Settings directory on the C drive. This will include all files associated with your profile. If you are saving files to the C:/ drive, you'll want to be sure it is located in the "My Documents" directory from your desktop or on the desktop.

As there are many things that can get in the way of the backup tool working completely (workstation powered off, network traffic, files in use, etc.), we've developed this tool to allow you to check on when the last copy of your data was made.

What do I need to do?
To find out when the last copy was taken, you'll need your computer name. To find it, simply right click on "My computer" from the desktop, go to properties, click on the Computer Name tab, and then look for "full computer name" That's your computer name. Next, enter the name below to search for information from our backup systems for your computer. The dates returned from the search are the benchmarks for when your data can be retrieved from on the backups.

 

 

What else?
Seeing the dates that your computer was backed up on, your fears can be allayed in knowing that if something were to go wrong, we likely can retrieve information from that point. Also, if you click on the date, you can see how much data from your computer was backed up. The IT department will capture periodic partial updates with a full-scale backup once a week.

If your computer doesn't seem to have been backed up previously (no dates available in the search) please contact the Helpdesk. Additionally, it could be valuable to maintain additional backups of critical information. There is no solution that is entirely fail-proof, so using the campus fileshares or making copies of your data onto CD and then storing them at a separate location might be worthwhile.

What about laptops?
Laptops are even more challenging to get a complete picture of on the backup system because of the regularity that they leave campus and are off the network. If you would like to have your laptop captured by the backup process, please talk with the Helpdesk to determine an adequate solution for your needs.

What about Macs?
Macintosh computers are not backed up by our backup system. If you would like to assure your data is protected, please use a campus fileshare or CDs. Please contact the Helpdesk with any questions.

How do I secure my files
To be confident your files are being backed up regularly, please make use of campus fileshares (on Berling and UASHome) and the CD-R drive on your computer. There is no one method that is completely fail-safe. Please contact the Helpdesk if you have any questions about how to use the campus fileshares or CD backup.

Happy computing!