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Importance of data backup

18 Dec 2007
 by Cristina Mailat | in: Maintenance

In a perfect world we would never have to worry about our computers failing, nor would we have to worry about natural disaster. But we don’t live in a perfect world so be sure to backup data regularly. You can keep data safe by using ID Backup Manager.

We know for certain, that all computers and their components will eventually fail. What we don’t know is when. Sooner or later every business or individual will be faced with a dead computer. The biggest threat is the loss or corruption of data.

Why I loose data because of file corruptions?

There are many reasons why data may be lost or corrupted, and not all are easily fixed. When a data loss or corruption occurs, often the only option is to restore data from a backup. So the best way to protect yourself is to make sure you do regular data backups.

If you are making backups regularly then restoring your data will go much quicker and your losses should be minimal. ID Backup Manager can help streamline your backup scheduling and ensure the process of restoring your data goes smoothly.

What options for backup do I have?

Today, there are many options available for storing and backing up data. Some of the more common options are tape drives, tape libraries, CD-R’s, CD-RW’s, and DVDs. Recently storage has gone mini with backup devices being as small as a USB 2 GB drive that’s no bigger than a piece of gum. To date this is by far the most convenient form of data backup.

CD or DVD backup is also convenient. One advantage to this form of backup is the ability to create an ongoing backup library. This allows you to jump back to several different points creating a snapshot of all your work. Especially useful for writers, artists, or photographers, as well as those that do project management.

There are also several remote backup sites available on the internet, as well as NAS and SAN. For a monthly fee an online storage service, will provide space and allow you to upload files directly to their server. The advantage is off site storage and ease of access. Most of these services take great pains to make sure your date is safe. They build multiple redundancies into their systems to handle concerns such a power failures and viruses.

Even Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 offer restore points in case your system becomes corrupted. You can set the restore points to meet your needs. I recommend setting it to automatically create a restore point every day.
Backup tools by themselves are not enough. They need to be used properly and on a regular basis which is why you should use ID Backup Manager. It is like having the smartest and most organized personal assistant on the planet. No more trying to remember when you last backed up, when your next backup is due. ID Backup Manager will not only make sure scheduled backups are completed, it will check to make sure the backups were completed successfully and were not corrupt.

Backup plan

How often you backup, depends on the type of work you are doing and how quickly the files on your system become outdated. A business that depends on the data on the computer might backup every hour. A home user might backup once a day, or even once a week, depending on their level of use. Once you’ve determined your backup needs you can configure ID Backup Manager to stay on track and create backups according to the schedule you set up. You should review your backup schedule every 6 months to ensure it is still meeting your need.

You will also need to decide if your backups should be stored on site or off site. In the case that a natural disaster strikes off site backups could be a life saver. What you can do is keep daily backups onsite, and once a week or once every few days remove a backup to secure offsite storage. If you backup your data regularly, then you will be prepared for computer breakdown, natural disaster, or other life factors that could ruin your computer.

In February a friend’s hot water tank blew while she was at work. By the time she arrived home her computer was half under water. She was very happy that she had been doing regular backups. Some new hardware and her backup and she was back up and running very quickly. Just recently my neighbor had his laptop stolen from his car. He was devastated. He had been working on the genealogy of his family for the past 3 years and it was gone. For the life of me I couldn’t understand why such important data had never been backed up. It could have just as easily been a hard-drive crash.

There are many reasons why you might suddenly find yourself without your data. The best way to be sure that your data loss is minimal is to back up regularly using ID Backup Manager.

Published: 18 Dec 2007  by Cristina Mailat, in: Maintenance Tags: , RSS feed for comments on this post.

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