You Are Making Backups, Aren’t You?

The sound of thunder rolling across the area warns of an approaching storm – and reminds me to talk with you a little about disaster recovery. This is something most people think of only after it’s too late. Like buying life insurance or making a will, it’s something a lot of people don’t like to talk about let alone do, but backing up your data is a critical part of your business and personal computing.

When I worked in tech support there were many occasions when I would be handed a desktop or notebook computer with a crashed hard disk or some other problem which caused data to be lost. I wonder if the feeling I got telling someone they lost all their work, pictures of their kids or grandkids, music collection or what have you was the same as a doctor or nurse has telling someone about the death of someone close. Even if it wasn’t I still felt terrible about it.

The saddest part about this is that data loss is preventable. Here are some tips to get you thinking about it:

Business Machines

• For desktops, consider using a product like Acronis. If you cannot make images of your hard disks, at a minimum back up document and data stores.
• For servers, Acronis or Syncsort’s BEX are good considerations. (Note: I only recommend Acronis or BEX because I have had good experiences with them, this is not a paid endorsement.)
• Store your backups on removable media and store them off site. Your backups will do you no good if they are burned up in the same fire that destroyed the computers they came from.
• If you only have one or two machines, consider using thumb drives or external hard disks for your backup media.
• There are also a number of offsite “cloud based” backup solutions like Barracuda Networks or Carbonite you may wish to consider. I’ve not used either of these solution, so I cannot comment on their service.

Home Machines

• If you are running Windows 7 as your operating system, it has a backup feature built in.
• Other operating systems may also have built-in backup applications as well.
• Home machines can be backed up to thumb drive or external hard disk.
• Back up your documents, photos, music files, checkbook databases, etc.
• Store your backups somewhere else if possible. If you leave them with someone else, make sure it’s someone you can trust with intimate, personal data!

Hosted Web Sites or Blogs
Even if your web site host backs up your data for you, it is to your advantage to back up your data and keep it close. Your host could go under or you might have a billing dispute. There are a myriad or reasons to keep your data with you as much as possible. Each web host and hosting platform has its own unique features that it’s difficult for me to give any specific recommendations other than to “just do it.”

One important thing most people don’t think about is to test your backups. Having the data stored nicely somewhere isn’t going to do you much good if you can get it back in a usable form. Restore some data every so often to not only make sure your backups are complete, but to also make sure you can use the data when it is restored.

What About You?
Is there something you feel I missed? Do you have any backup or restore hints? Do you have a horror story you don’t mind sharing to help us all learn better? Please feel free to share in the comments.

Tagged as: backups, disaster recovery, in-house, it