Computer manuals mention it. Hard disk manuals stress it. Consultants worry you about not doing it. Victims always do it afterwards. So what is it?

Backing up. You probably know that you should make copies of program disks and then store the originals safely away, in order to use only the copies (assuming that the software is not copy-protected, of course). And you may also know that you should have at least two copies of all your work (music, patches, and samples) carefully catalogued and filed away. The theory is fine, but in practice most users just do not have the time or inclination to do anything about it. What I intend to do is persuade you to change by showing you how doing things right can make your life easier, not harder. In the process you will also protect your investment in both software and time.

Originals are precious, especially when they contain a software 'key' for a program. Many programs let you minimise wear and tear on the original disk by allowing you to use a copy to load the program itself, and then requiring you to insert the original disk once, in order for the program to verify that you do have a legitimate copy. Some programs offer hard disk 'installs', which let you copy the software key across to the hard disk and so avoid any swapping of original disks. Both of these methods minimise the number of times that you need to use the original, which should maximise its life.

When you have bought an original disk with commercial software, there is always the possibility of asking the company for a replacement if the disk becomes faulty. But when you have created an original disk — containing data for some of your songs, for example — then you need to take more care. This is where backups come in handy. A 'backup' is merely computer jargon for a safety copy. When you record a master tape that represents hundreds or thousands of hours of work, you don't want to lose it, do you? The same sort of argument applies to software too, and so do many of the same principles:

Quality. When you buy tape for mastering to (reel-to-reel, DAT or even cassette), do you choose the cheapest, 'never heard of them' multi-pack you can find, or do you go for a famous brand name, top-of-the-range, 'professional' product? Tape stores music, and disks store data for music, so the same criteria apply.

Storage. Master tapes don't while away the hours in dusty and smoky environments, near TV monitors or loudspeakers, or even near cups of coffee or cans of cola. Instead they are carefully stored in purpose-built store rooms. Disks need similar treatment — even a simple disk box will keep out the dust.

Indexing. When a record company wants to release another 'greatest hits' album, do they spend ages searching for the master tapes? How quickly could you find the disk which holds that sequence you were working on last month? You need a consistent labelling system.

The whole subject of labelling could occupy several books, but the basic idea is to make the process of annotating disks quick and easy, otherwise you won't do it. Colour-coded labels are a good idea, but then you need to have some way of remembering what the colours mean. I prefer to use a computer to design my own labels and then print them out onto self-adhesive labels. This may take some time, but it saves a lot of hassle in the long run. The most important things to indicate on a label are: computer type; SS/DS/HD etc, or 400/800k, 720/1440k or whatever (easy to create in a 'delete as applicable' form); your name; space for the title on the edge of the disk, and also on the main part of the label; a category mark (eg. MIDI File/ASCII Text/SEQ File); the source program; contents of the disk (filenames); the number of bytes used on the disk (very useful for checking its integrity); the date; any other optional extras which you might put on the disk (anti-virus utilities, etc.).

With all this on the label already, a few marks with a pen and a few words are all that you need to complete a detailed description of the disk's contents. Whilst you are filling these details in, you can be making a second copy of the disk, and the second label will be even quicker to write out. The two disks should be stored separately to avoid any problems with accidental destruction. You then sort them into alphabetical order within categories. By doing the sorting when you put the disk away, you avoid spending hours doing it later on — do not put it off until later! The end result is a disk box with files sorted into groups where it is easy to find any specific file quickly. The box itself is an index — you look down the edge of the disks to see what is in the box.

You can extend the same principle to organising the contents of a hard disk. You put files into folders representing the categories, and put these into a single folder for the project you are working on at the time. When the project is finished you can then archive the hard disk files to floppies using the categories for separate disks. For large and complex works, you just split the work into smaller sections and store files within these, eg. Beethoven/Symphonies/Fifth/First 20 Bars.