In today’s digital world we often take the reliability and security of our computer and it’s files for granted. In the “analog” world making sure our valuable documents were safe was pretty easy to comprehend. We kept these important files in a nice fire proof filing cabinet. The Xerox copier was our friend, photocopy the original then place that original in the safest place we could afford. Of course the hardest part of keeping physical copies was the amount of space required for storage. Businesses would have a room full of nothing but filling cabinets. You made sure the files were organized so that to find one later would not take an entire day. Large companies would have positions for people who just took care of these files.
When the digital revolution came we rejoiced. Hundreds of thousands of documents that once took up a whole room and staff to manage it could now be stored all on the computer on your desk. An amazing thing for sure but this digital revolution has come with it own perils.
A physical document has a few threats to it’s survival; a natural disaster, theft, or just getting lost. If the fire/flood proof filing cabinet was in a secure location you felt pretty safe. That same document in the digital world suffers many more threats. Natural disaster, theft, accidental deletion, overwritten, file corruption, viruses, malware, computer crash, and hard drive failure. The digital file has so many ways for it to be altered or destroyed. The number one cause of file loss is human error but second is hard drive failure. Almost every computer today has a hard disk drive. It’s your computer filing cabinet. It’s made up of tiny spinning magnetic platters that are very sensitive. These HDD’s are great, they let us store all of this information that used to take up an entire room but they also fail. They fail Alot! It’s not a matter of if your hard drive will die, it’s a matter of when. It could be ten years. It could be two months. I actually had a customer who thought she was backing up her brand new computer and it turns out it wasn’t backed up and her HDD died. She had irreplaceable photos and files on that drive. She paid a specialist file recovery company $2,800 to recover maybe one hundred photos.
This is why it is so important to have your files backed up.
Let’s define what a backup is:
A backup is having two or more copies of your files at all times. Those additional copies must not reside in/on the same computer as the original. Those additional copies must be in a safe easy to access place.
What a backup is not:
Say you have a folder with your business’ most important files. It is not a backup if you move those files off your computer’s hard drive and on to a USB flash drive that lives in your pocket. Also, if your computer is backing up files to the same hard drive as the originals.
Basically if your files don’t exist in two or more places then they don’t exist at all.
Here are some backup strategies and tools that your business can and should use.
First is a local backup, this local backup is usually a USB external hard drive plugged directly into your computer. It can also be a drive on your network. The purpose of this drive is to backup your entire computer. Not just your user files but the system files too. If your HDD died you would be able to restore your entire system from this drive. This local backup is also great for when you accidentally delete or overwrite a file. You want a backup program that allows you to recover the single file you need.
All you need for this local backup is software and an external hard drive. Any USB or Firewire external hard drive will work. You also want a drive that’s capacity is twice (or more) the size of your computer hard drive. So if you have a 200 gigabyte hard drive, you’ll want a 400 or more backup drive. Keep in mind that this backup drive should only be used for your backup. Don’t let someone borrow it to load up their music library.
When it comes to software you shouldn’t need to buy any. Both Windows and Macs come with great backup utilities. For the Mac Time Machine is your friend. It makes it super easy to restore that file you didn’t mean to trash or restore your entire system. For Windows, I have been informed by my Twitter PC friends (remember I’m the Apple Expert not the PC Expert) that Windows NT Backup is a backup solution that works great. However, there are plenty of 3rd party solutions. Symantec has Backup Exec for the PC and SuperDuper! is a great solution for the Mac.
Tip: If you want to get even more secure with your local backups, get two hard drives. Have one for your daily backups then another that you just backup say once week or month. Take the 2nd backup to an offsite location. Maybe from the office to your home, a friend’s house, or better yet a safety deposit box. The benefit here is in case of physical threats like fire or theft your 2nd backup is safe.
So now we’re feeling good, we have a real useful backup of our system, is there anything else we can do? Yes, there is and like everything else today it’s happening online. The idea here is that your most precious files get backed up securely over your internet connection to another companies server automatically and in the background. Like a good local backup it just works and there’s little management on your part.
Not until recently online backup wasn’t possible. It was limited and expensive. But today many companies are offering attractive solutions for online backup. The advantage of having an online backup is that your files are stored off site. Way off site. So if a tornado rips through Stillwater, your business building may not survive but your files did because they live in another state where hopefully they didn’t have a tornado at the same time. The other advantage is that those files are accessible anywhere you have an internet connection. So if your traveling with a notebook you know that you can access those backup files and you can continue your backup while your traveling.
Companies offering online backup are popping up all over the web. Here are a few that are also securely encrypted so your files are safe while on their way to and from the servers and your computers.
Carbonite.com – For personal use they offer unlimited online backup for $54.95/year. If your a one computer business this will work for you. They do offer volume sales for small business but no pricing is given.
Mozy.com – For personal use they offer a free 2GB of space. For businesses needing more back storage they offer MozyPro. $3.95 + $0.50 per GB/month. Mozy’s advantage is a monthly plan instead of a 1 year commitment.
iDrive.com – Their basic plan gives 2 GB free. Their iDrive Pro for personal is $4.95/ month for 150 GB. For Business $9.99/month for 50GB. They offer yearly and monthly plans.
All of these solutions require you to install software on your computer. All three also are PC and Mac compatible.
Ideally, you should have a combination of both local backup and online/offsite backup, this strategy will significantly reduce your risk of data loss. Remember if a file does not exist in two separate places, it does not exist at all.
The above article I wrote for the new business section of the November 2009 issue of Stillwater Living magazine. Thank you to Sarah Little for letting me republish the article here. Learn more about the magazine and publisher, Peacock Pro here. Be sure to pick up your copy, it’s only $2 at magazine stands around Stillwater.
