I think this is something that every computer tech will agree with; People don’t back up data often enough.
With the amount of personal data being stored on our computers these days, combined with the extremely low cost of CDRs, DVDRs, USB flash drives, it should be a no-brainer to back-up important data. There are countless times when we’ve backed up or recovered data for our customers, but a few specific times come to mind. One such case was when an aspiring author lost nearly three years of work due to a corrupted file. In a case of extreme luck, we were able to recover nearly all of the file, but the trouble could have been easily prevented.
Here are a couple of quick tips to consider when setting up your back-up.
Manual or automated? For businesses, I always recommend an automated backup. Your data changes on a daily basis, rebuilding even a day’s worth of work is a significant investment in time. Personal files on a home computer may not change as much, so an automated backup may be over-kill. Back-up manually, if it suits you.
What medium? The biggest factor for most backups is space. For an extremely easy means to backup, you can use a USB flash drive. If you’re backing up manually, CDRs may work for you. For larger jobs, specialized tape/cartridge backup devices exist and are fairly inexpensive. If you choose to use an external hard drive for your backup, this next section especially applies.
Redundancy! If your data is critical, irreplacable or even just of great value to you, back-up your backup! If you have more than one copy of your data, you’re greatly reducing the chances that you’ll lose it. Keep in mind, if you’re using an external hard drive, hard drives are one of the most common components to fail, so have another backup method if you can.
February 5th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Amen! It’s a lesson too many users learn the hard way, especially with the reduced cost of backup methods these days.