Archive Other Data

When archiving your digital assets do not forget about application data, configuration files, and databases. This data is also critical if you had to do a full system recovery. Do you know where your applications store their data and are you backing up that data? Many applications allow you to select the directory where the data is stored. When performing a system backup remember this data.

Application Data

Many applications store data on your computer and you have to be sure to backup that data. Applications such as Quicken, iTunes, etc. allow you to choose the directory that they use to store your data. Set these applications to store their data in a directory that is part of your backup procedure. Some applications store configuration details and you may also want to save a copy of the configuration to your archive. You can often export the configuration to a file and save it in your archive.

Database

If you do development work then be sure to export your databases and store them in your archival system. I have a directory for website development that includes a _backup directory for each project. This backup directory contains database and other backups for that project. When I copy the entire development directory to the archives it includes the website files and the backup copies of the database data.

Websites

It is good practice to have your websites backed-up. The server companies may maintain backups but I like having my own backup copy of my websites. Most of my websites use WordPress and there are a number of excellent plugins that make backups very easy. I use All-in-One WP Migration. This plugin is normally used when moving a WordPress site but it creates excellent backups. This plugin saves all themes, plugins, configuration, and database tables for your entire website. It combines and exports all of this data as a single file. If you need to rebuild your entire website you just install a clean copy of WordPress, add the plugin, and then use the plugin to import your backup file. If you change your domain name this plugin also updates the database entries so that they work with the new domain.