LFC Consulting - Backup Tips
Do I really need to backup my data? Of course you do.
What was my excuse? Well, these were the days of tape backups and 3.5" floppy disks. I did not like using either for backup. Tape was inefficient and continuously feeding floppy disks was so tedious. I had to recreate my data by retyping it. My address book was gone and the invoicing data backup I had was a few months old. I had to retype everything I was missing.
These days there are many ways to backup your data. The simplest way is to copy your data to another folder. How does this help? If you overwrite a document with the same name you render the original completely gone. If you have a copy of that document, you can retrieve from the original. The downside of relying on a copy of your data that sits on the same drive is if the hard disk dies, so does that copy. But at least you have it on your PC twice.
If you have an incredibly important document like a thesis paper or manuscript, email it to yourself. This is an easy and effective way of not only duplicating your important file, but also storing the file away from the original. Remote storage is an important concept in safely keeping data. If you backup all your files and leave the backup media on top of the computer, it is almost like having no backup at all. If there is a fire at your location, everything will be destroyed. If a thief targets your location, why would they not take the backup media in addition to your computer?
Another method of protecting your data is to purchase TWO thumb drives. Redundancy is critical in backing up. If you rely on one thumb drive for your most critical files, there is no guarantee that thumb drive will work when you most need to rely on it. Purchase and use two. I have lost many photos because I saved them on only one 3.5" floppy disk without redundancy.
My favorite back up method for the past few years has been to backup the whole drive to an external hard disk. This involves two components: Two external hard disks and good backup software. Again, the two external drives allows for redundancy. What do you do with the second drive? The first one stays connected to the computer so it can backup. The schedule can be set for lunch time or overnight if preferred. The second drive needs to be off site at another location. This safety step allows you to recover your data in case your computer, and first backup drive, fail. The first and second drives need to be rotated on a regular basis. Lastly, if rotating the drives off site is not possible, at least put the drives in a fireproof safe close by.
The backup software copies the whole hard disk. When a recovery is necessary, three time consuming steps are eliminated: Installing Windows from scratch, installing each application needed for your business and copying the data back. In a recovery situation all that is required is restoring the backup file to a new hard disk and you are back in business.
Rafael Miranda is a computer consultant with LFC Consulting, Inc.
I started the company in August 1991 to provide Sales, Service and Support of PC Hardware and Software.
I service the small business community, as well as home networks and laptop users.
Please call 973-316-9191 for more information.