|
Backing-up your data.
Ask yourself this: what would I do if I lost all the data files on my
computer(s)? Buy a new computer? Cry? Start over? If the prospect of loosing
your e-mails, pictures, documents, spreadsheets, financial data or addresses
does not faze you, you are probably one of the select few who has a plan to
deal with just such a disaster. Good.
Planning for a potential data loss takes only a little bit of effort now but
may save you lots of money and hours of frustration later. A disaster can
strike your data storage at any time, even without a storm threatening. Hard
drives do fail, and virus and other "malware" writers
are busy figuring out to hack your systems. Assuming that adequate protection
is in place against malware etc. this article focuses on random hard drive
disasters or file corruptions.
After making such back-ups, test those back-ups! Pretend you have lost that
important file and see if you can recover it from your backup media. There are
many small glitches that make the difference between a false sense of security
and a speedy recovery.
Microsoft-certified Site Engineers from NetRunners®
are trained to address and assist in helping you devise and implement an
effective disaster recovery plan.
Basic Preparations - $
Home users
Take 30 minutes and go through all the programs on your computer. Which files
do you use most often or contain information that you don't have anywhere else?
If you only have one copy of that file, copy it to a floppy or burn it to
Zip-drives, CD or DVD and keep those separate from your computer. A floppy hold
about 1.4 Megabytes, (which is rather small by today's standards); a CD can
hold about 700 Megabytes, while a DVD can hold about 4.7 Gigabytes. If you have
a second computer, with some effort you can store another copy to that second
computer.
Don't bother backing-up program files, such as Microsoft Word because they can
be replaced more easily while backing these up may involve many Gigabytes.
However, now it may be a good time to see where all your disks are that came
with your computer. Make sure you have a copy of any software activation codes! You will need them to restore your programs or face buying
new programs. If you don't have them or cannot find them, contact your computer
vendor; for a small fee they will send you new copies as long as you can prove
you own the computer.
Intermediate Preparations - $ $
Home/Home Business Users
When you have lots of files that need to be protected against loss, or these
files change often, an occasional copy to a CD or DVD may not be sufficient.
Consider buying a dedicated back-up software program. Most of these programs
allow you to select which files you want to back-up, where you want to store
them, and how frequently. Windows includes such a program (so it is free), but
more versatile programs can be bought for $40 to $80.
However, besides the program managing the back-up process, you will need a
reliable storage medium of sufficient size to copy all these files too. A DVD
burner allows you to back-up lots of files, and an internal DVD burner costs
about $225 or so. Another option is, if you have another computer, is to
network them together and back-up important files from one to the other. This
can be fully automated so it occurs every day at 3 AM or so.
Advanced Preparation - $ $ $
Business Users
For most home users, basic or intermediate levels of back-up routines will
suffice. Businesses however, cannot only not afford to lose data, businesses
can also not afford to spend hours or days restoring data, even if it has been
backed-up properly.
Prudent disaster recovery planning for businesses would include:
-
Using central file-servers with redundant hard drives in so called RAID
(Redundant Array of Independent Disks) configurations. For instance, a RAID-1
configuration has two identical hard drives equal in size, with the computer
writing each file to both drives simultaneously. When one drive fails, the
RAID-controller would automatically start using the working drive exclusively
and instantly, and flash a message to alert that a drive needs to be replaced.
-
Redirection of important folders such as My Documents from a local desktop
system to a file server, where this folder will automatically be included in
the server back-up routine.
-
At least daily, but possible hourly or real-time, back-ups of all user files.
-
Daily or at least weekly off-site storage of the back-ups to DVD, tape or via
high-speed data links to a remote data vault.
|