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Backup
Your PC
What are you waiting for? Back up your
PC today. I
do not know why some people do not backup their data. Everyone has
talked with someone or heard of someone that has had their hard drive
crash and lost all their data. In most cases, you can have your hard
drive sent off and have the data recovered, but this can cost $1700 to
$2200 and there is no guarantee that all of your data will be
recoverable. So backup those family photos,business files, stock
information and your contacts in Outlook or Outlook Express.
In a perfect world, your backup solution should
include
all of the following: You backup everything ( Operating System,
programs and data) every night. You hold on to at least 10 of these
backups before overwriting media. Several of these backups are held off
site at a secure site. Backups are encrypted and/or password protected.
There are pros and cons for all of your backup solution scenarios, you
will have to decide what level of protection you require.
As far as hardware is concerned, you
have a number
of backup options: CD\DVD Burner, USB Hard Drive, USB Thumb Drive, Tape
Drive, REV Drive or a Backup Service via the Internet. For most home
users, backups using a CD\DVD Burner or USB Hard Drive is your best
bet. Most computers come with a CD/DVD burner, if yours does not, one
can be purchased for under $100. You will only be able to back up your
data if you use a CD Burner. If you use a DVD Burner, in all
probability you will need software to span more than one DVD disk. With
CD/DVD backups, backup disks can be stored off site.
Depending on
the capacity, USB hard drives can be purchased at a cost between $80 -
$160. If you have a lot of data, you will not be able to have
multiple sets of your backup. Also, you will not be able to store your
backups offsite. For small businesses, a tape drive, REV drive or
Internet Service would be your best bet. I like the REV
drives,
they work like a tape drive but because the media is a disk and not
tape, you do not run into cleaning problems and the media wearing out
after 6 to 12 months of use. REV media is typically more
expensive than tape.
As
far as software is concerned, you have a number of options to
consider. Windows 2003 Server and Windows XP Pro comes with a
backup program installed. If you have Windows XP Home, the backup
program can be installed off of the Windows XP installation CD. For
Servers, most people like to find a more feature rich product. Most
backup programs will have some sort of scheduler. The programs I have
liked the best allow you to print the backup logs. If you have a
question about a backup job, you can print it out and send it to
someone. If your system fails and you have to restore, a printed copy
of the backup job comes in handy.
There are a lot of programs out that are suited
to
backing up to CD or DVD. They allow backups to span more than one disk.
Some of them Zip the files, so you would not need to load the
backup software to actually restore the files.
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