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Selecting a Backup System |
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One of the great truths about computers is that sooner or later, you will lose data. Good backups are essential. In order to get the best backup system for you, consider the following questions: Do you need to protect all of your data, or only critical data? This determines the capacity of your backup system. The more data you need to save, the more space you'll need. How many days of data can you afford to lose and then re-enter? Whatever the answer is, that’s the maximum amount of time you should have between backups for your critical data. Do you have time to do backups manually? If you don’t have time, or can’t commit to doing backups regularly, you need an automated system. Is your biggest fear a computer crash, a fire, or a break-in? On-site backups protect you from computer crashes, but if you’re concerned about catastrophic events like fire, you should store backups off-site as well. Once you’ve answered these questions, you can decide on your system. If you don’t mind doing backups manually, and if you only have a small amount of data to save, you can buy a CD/RW or DVD/RW drive and rewritable CDs or DVDs. It’s inexpensive, and easy to store the disks off-site, but you have to make time to do the backups regularly. An easier method than CDs or DVDs is to buy an external USB hard drive. These devices are relatively inexpensive, and plug easily into your computer. You can buy whatever capacity you need to suit the size of your backups. Often, they include backup software that helps you select the data to be backed up, and schedule regular automatic backups. Even if they don't include these software utilities, it's still easy for you copy your data from your computer to the external hard drive manually. Again, though, if you choose to do manual backups, remember that you'll need to be disciplined about making time to get them done. If you have a second, networked computer available, you can also use another computer as your backup server. You will need to purchase and install backup software if you want to automate the process, or you can manually copy files from one computer to another over the network. If your backup server is in the same building, though, it doesn’t provide the additional security of off-site data storage. You can purchase backup software (such as Acronis) that runs automatically, copying files from your computer to another drive, or over the network to a backup server. Many types of backup software let you do a "bare-metal" backup, which is a backup that will completely restore all the programs, settings, and data on your computer. To my mind, the bare-metal option alone is worth the price of the backup software. When you consider how long it would take (and how much expertise would be needed) to reinstall programs and reconfigure your computer if something went catastrophically wrong, the ease of restoring everything with a couple of clicks looks very attractive! Another option is online backups. At a selected time, your data is sent over an internet connection to an online backup company. If you lose data, it can be restored either over the network or via hard-copy CD’s or DVD’s sent from the backup company. This solution eliminates the need for you to buy and maintain hardware, and it can be automated. Its advantage is that it provides off-site storage, but you pay by the size of storage you require, and it is an ongoing expense. Larger companies often use tape drives and other specialized backup devices, but those devices can be quite expensive and more difficult to administer. For most small companies, entrepreneurs, and home users, I recommend either an external hard drive with backup software, or an online backup company. Once your backup system is in place, it’s important to test it regularly. Check to make sure the system is running, and restore some data to be sure it was correctly backed up. If all these options seem overwhelming, don’t despair. Start with what seems manageable. If that means copying your 10 most important files onto a USB stick, do that first. You can adapt your system as you go along. Ultimately, any backup is better than no backup!
Click here
to listen to Diane Henders talk with Hugh Reilly of ThatRadio.com about
backups. (Approx. 2 minutes 55 seconds). By: Diane Henders, Bright Ideas Personalized Learning Inc. For more information or computer training services, please call Bright Ideas Personalized Learning at (403) 692-2255. |
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