Computer Backup Options

Backing up your computers is absolutely essential! If you loose computer data, you could also loose your business. For a video showing the importance of backup, watch this video: http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/furniture-home-furnishings-stores-furniture/3474069-1.html

The more you can do to protect against data backup nightmares, the more time and money you can reserve for moving the business forward. But there's more than one way to back up your data, depending on your budget, the number of computers that require backup, and whether or not you use a network. Here are a few of the backup options available:

1. Use recordable media. Once upon a time, you could back up your entire computer on a few floppy disks or Zip disks. Those days are now long past %u2014 but now we have CD-R and DVD-R media. CD-Rs can hold up to 700MB of data, and double-layer DVD-Rs can hold up to 8.5GB. Depending on the size of your hard drive, though, you may end up spending lots of time burning multiple disks to safeguard your data.

2. Get a second hard disk. You can install a drive that's just as big as your existing hard disk and then copy, or "mirror," all of the data on the second drive. Hard disk prices have dropped considerably, and mirroring a disk makes it easy to replace lost data. But keeping all of your backup data on the same system leaves it vulnerable to the same problems that might affect your primary hard disk. 3. Use an online backup service. These services allow you to upload your data over the Internet to remote servers %u2014 if you need to restore lost data, you simply log on to the backup service and download your files. Internet backup services offer several benefits: they're cheap, easy to use, and very reliable. But Internet backups can be slow, and you'll need Internet access to retrieve your backup files. You should never rely only on Internet backups; if the company storing your data goes out of business, your data might vanish too. Your files reside on a dedicated server in a remote location %u2014 most likely a secure data storage facility with strict physical security and access controls. The backup servers are themselves backed up, usually by constantly "mirroring," or copying, the same data on several different hard disks. In addition, the storage facility might take further steps to protect your data, such as periodically copying files onto tapes the facility stores in yet another remote location. This guarantees that no matter what happens, the backup service will be able to restore your data.

Of course, your files still have to travel over the Internet from your computer to the backup location. To protect your data from being intercepted while it's moving across the computers and communications lines that make up the Internet, most backup services encrypt your files before you upload them. Anyone who intercepts the data wouldn't be able to decipher it without the proper codes. There's another aspect to consider: the financial health of the company that stores your data. A number of Internet backup companies have gone out of business recently, and some have left customers unable to retrieve their data. If this problem concerns you, there are two things you can do. First, thoroughly investigate an Internet backup company before you do business with it, and always ask what will happen to your data if the company goes out of business. Second, create separate backups of your data on tapes, portable disks, or other media, and keep these backups under your company's control. This allows your company to enjoy the benefits of online file storage without exposing your business to unnecessary risk.

3. Use a software backup program. A backup utility, like Norton Ghost or the backup utility that comes bundled in Windows XP, can take the headache out of backing up your data. It's not meant to replace any of the three methods above; rather, it just automates the backup process. You tell it when and where, and the program can automatically back up your data to the location of your choice.

4. Use a Thumb or Flash drive. If you keep all of your data on central files, such as my documents, and we only need to back up from 0-4GB a flash drive makes a very convenient and low cost method of backing up our data. We now have flash memory that can hold up to 4GB of data. You may use multiple flash drives if you have multiple large files. Usually it is necessary to back up only the data files, as we normally have the original disks for our programs and may use these to recreate after a disaster. What's Better: Local or Network Backups?

If your business uses a network, you'll have to decide whether to back up all of your computers over the network or back up each computer separately. In most cases, you should back up all of the computers on a network along with your file servers; that way, you can purchase a single high-end backup system for your whole network. It's much more expensive to buy a separate backup unit for each computer, and it's a waste of time to lug a portable backup drive from one computer to another.

Regards,

Denny Kessler