How do Your Backups Compare to Mine

March 10, 2008

I recently did an informal poll of business owners, asking them about their data back-ups. Sadly, most failed to have adequate protection in place and only one scored an A+.

What really alarmed me is that almost all of them knew of someone who had suffered because of a computer crash without adequate back-ups and still hadn’t taken measures to protect themselves.

Now There's No Excuse To Fall Victim To Data Disaster

With a small investment of time and money, you can be well on your way to having a robust back-up solution that covers you for the most common back-up/recovery scenarios:

1. Deleted a file that you need to recover
2. Hard drive crashed
3. Building destroyed

This article explains what I do to handle all three scenarios. (There are other perfectly valid ways to do back-ups and some of them better suited than mine for specific back-up needs, but this approach I’m sharing is suitable for most small businesses.)

After years of experimentation and research, I’ve finally settled on a set of tools that I really like. I find them to be: reliable, easy to use, affordable and they will run automatically.

But before we get into the tools, let’s talk about…

What Should I Back-Up?

The simple answer is only back-up your data.

You can’t really restore an operating system or installed programs; you're better off doing a fresh install of them. However, you should keep back-up copies (along with the installation serial numbers) of your operating system and installed programs.

To make backing-up reliable and easy, I suggest the following best practices:

• Create folders on your computer to organize your content into. This makes it easier to find your files and easier to select them for back-up.
• If you have a network, create a centralized filing system and have everyone store their data in the same location.
• Be sure to back-up your Email folders.
• Keep a list of critical passwords stored off-site in a trusted, secure location.

Recommended Back-up Tools

Over the years, I’ve backed-up to different kinds of media: floppy disks, zip drives, CD’s and DVDs. I don’t any more. It simply became too time consuming and confusing having to manually swap disks, worry if the media was getting too full, buying new media, wondering which back-up set was the right one, etc.

Now I’ve got it really streamlined…

1. Undelete. Sometimes, restoring a deleted file from the recycle bin doesn’t work. In these cases, I use a free software called Recuva.
2. Hard Drive Crash. I use and recommend SyncBackSE. You can purchase it on-line for about $40 and download.
   
   I use it as my primary local back-up and is my first line of defense in case I can’t retrieve a deleted file or because of a scenario such as data corruption or hard drive crash.
   
   I back-up my centrally stored files to a physically separate hard drive. SyncBackSE is set to automatically back-up daily in the middle of the night.
3. Disaster. In addition to my daily local back-up, I also do a daily off-site back-up. For this, I use an on-line tool called Mozy. For about $4/month (way cheaper than buying storage media), it securely backs-up all of my data to an off-site location.
   
   This is my last line of defense in case my local back-up has failed for some reason or some sort of disaster has occurred and I need to start completely over. Like my local back-up, it’s set-up to automatically back-up every night.

The bottom-line is that my back-up tools work silently in the background to give me not just one, but two daily back-ups…one in the office and one off-site. My data is securely protected.

With a little time invested and the right tools, having a solid back-up strategy in place to protect your business is easily accomplished.

If you have any questions about backing-up your data, I’m happy to share what I do to back-up my data with you.
 
Now, there’s no excuse…Right now—while you’re still reading this article—pull out your day planner and schedule a time to get your back-ups in place.

Helpful links to the back-up and restore tools mentioned in this article:

Recuva	Free undelete utility.
SyncBackSE	About $40, buy on-line and download.
Mozy	About $4/month, on-line service.