Backing up your data
Why do I need to back-up my data?
Many reasons - data loss can be caused by power cuts, hard disk faults,
virus & spyware, accidental erasure, physical shock and password
loss
to name but a few. We won't even mention disasters like a fire or
flood. Backups serve as archives and as an audit trail as well as
a way to restore or recover corrupted or accidentally deleted files.
How often do I need to back up?
How important is your data? A few letters can be re-typed fairly quickly,
but the average office often has many years work stored on the
computer. A general rule is to decide how much work are you willing to
put in to duplicate any lost data - remember, if you back up once a
week and the drive goes down just before you were about to perform the
weekly backup, you may have to spend a week catching up! Sometimes the
data cannot be replaced - email from potential customers or family photographs for instance.
Businesses should consider daily (or even more frequent) backups.
OK, I'm convinced - how do I do it?
Small amounts of data can simply be copied to a CD, Zip drive, external drive
or network attached storage (e.g. another PC or laptop). Larger amounts
may need to be compressed
and/or a backing up utility used, which can selectively back-up data
that has
been changed since the last run. Microsoft Windows has a built in
utility, accessible from the start menu. Manual backups are easily
forgotton or postponed if you are busy, so either give a named person
responsibility or introduce an automated system.
Remember to verify the backup, i.e. ensure the data on the backup media
is a good copy. We recently saw a case where the customer had been
'backing up' a series of shortcuts pointing to the real data!
Always use multiple backup sets, and rotate them - one for each day of
the week or at the very least, alternate sessions. If one back-up set
is corrupt, you can use the one before.
What do I back up?
Depends on how important the data is and how quickly you need to
recover. If the computer and information is critical to your business
and you cannot survive more than a few hours without it you could
mirror the entire drive. Most people will only need to back up data
which is changed - emails, graphics, letters, spreadsheets,
configuration files etc. There is normally no need to back up operating
systems, application software and drivers as these can be re-installed
from the original media (you did keep the original disks safe, didn't
you?) Internet and computer user names and passwords should be kept
somewhere secure - perhaps a sealed envelope in the safe.
Storage of backups:
Backups should be stored OFF-SITE, but remember to consider any security
implications and the data protection act should they fall into the
wrong hands.
For more information, give us a call or email
Chris
for an informal chat.
See here for one way of
backing up your Linux box
