Safeguarding your Work in Excel

Nothing is worse than spending hours creating a complicated Excel workbook only to have it destroyed by a power failure, a hard-drive crash, or even human error. Fortunately, protecting yourself from these disasters is not a difficult task.

Earlier in this tutorial, we discussed the AutoRecover feature that makes Excel save a backup copy of your workbook at regular intervals. We also mentioned the Always Create Backup option in the General Options dialog box. These are good ideas, but they certainly are not the only backup protection you should use. If a file is truly important, you need to take extra steps to ensure its safety. The following backup options help ensure the safety of individual files:

• Keep a backup copy of the file on the same drive. Essentially what happens when you select the Always Create A Backup option when you save a workbook file. Although this option offers some protection if you make a mess of the worksheet, it won't do you any good if the entire hard drive crashes.
• Keep a backup copy on a different hard drive. Assumes, of course, that your system has more than one hard drive. This option offers more protection than the preceding method, because the likelihood that both hard drives will fail is remote. If the entire system is destroyed or stolen, however, you are out of luck.
• Keep a backup copy on a network server. Assumes that your system is connected to a server on which you can write files. This method is fairly safe. If the network server is located in the same building, however, you are at risk if the entire building burns down or is otherwise destroyed.
• Keep a backup copy on a removable medium. The safest method. Using a removable medium, such as a CD-ROM, enables you to physically take the backup to another location. So, if your system (or the entire building) is damaged, your backup copy remains intact.