Keeping backups

It is a simple fact that computers, like any other machines, do fail. To avoid the risk of losing your work, you will need to make backups of all your work. If you are producing your website at your school or college, you will find that there is a policy about backups. This will probably involve a daily network backup. However, the instructions for this course make it clear that you must set up your own backup procedure. As a basic idea, you should ensure that every time you make a change to your website, you make an electronic copy of your website on a medium or device which can be taken away with you. The choice of device or medium to which you save, such as CD, USB Memory Stick or External Hard Drive may be governed by school policy – some schools ban USB Hard Drives, for example. Whichever device or medium you choose, save your work after each session.

If you are producing work at home or elsewhere, do not fool yourself into thinking that your machine will not fail. Just as if you were working at school or college, you must save a copy of your work after each session.

You will need to provide screenshot evidence of having a working backup system in place. There are a number of ways in which you could do this but a screenshot of the directory structure showing a removable drive and the day by day content of that drive as you change your website is one possible method. Another method involves producing a screenshot of a CD being created as data is moved across.