Hi, after a short break from writing in the blog whilst ushering in my second baby boy into the world whilst juggling the needs of my clients, I wanted to talk about DATA. Whether you call it day-ta or dar-ta, it's important STUFF!
Think about it - before when taking photos, you used to keep the rolls of film, or maybe the negatives in a packet. Now, we have digital files to keep our memories from fading. These files are inherently not seen with the eye uless looked for. They don't take up a drawer-full, nor if we had little or many would the computer look any different. So there they are - on a harddrive inside your computer.
What happens when the harddrive FAILS?
The first thing I ask my clients when they call, telling me their computer is not starting up, or they see a folder with a question mark icon on it on the mac, is "Have you got a recent backup of your files?" Mostly and sadly, the answer is no, for those that are calling me for the 1st time as they previously hadn't had it impressed on them, the importance of a backup.
What is a backup?
It's a copy of your data; your photos, videos, emails, bookmarks, system or whatever.
The following is NOT a backup.
Moving your data from your computer to make space and placing it on a USB/External Harddrive or DVD.
The reason this is not a backup is because you still only have the information in one place. Therefore you have just placed your entire trust in the technology that it is now on, rather than giving you that safety blanket of having it in two places.
Full System backups such as what is done in Apple's Time Machine is a fantastic way to ensure you have all your files and system backed up. Again if you have been following my blog so far - this means a COPY of your data. If you fill up and need the space in your internal drive, either expand the internal drive space or delete the items you no longer need. If you need them, you could ARCHIVE them.
To me, archiving is taking them away from current use. But the important thing here is, to duplicate the archive. DVDs are good for this. 8GB on a dual layer disc - run the "burn" procedure twice and you have - a backed up archive. Then it is safe to delete from the main machine (after checking the files on the DVD!).
Ok, now what happens if my house burns down (heaven forbid), my computer and the backup are both gone!? That is true, and leads me to talk about off-site backup. This is important!
There are two types of off-site backup.
- Archival, and usually performed on rotation.
- Ongoing - usually performed to an internet storage solution and real-time/live.
So how can you implement this?
Have two external backup drives, and rotate them when you feel you need to. If via the internet, find an external hosted storage solution for your backup needs. One such product that can do your o-site backups, as well as internet off-site backups, is CRASHPLAN.
I hope that in writing this article you have been prompted to think about your data. Where it is, the redundancy (copies) that you might have in times of failure to protect you from data loss and given you ways to take action.
If you need help - please feel free to contact me via my website www.maxcomputing.com.au
