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What are your backup options?

When I decided to check out my backup options, I learnt that there are several options, and each option has some specific techniques that everyone should know about for creating a successful backup.

First Option - Local Backup

Local backup is every type of backup that will keep your backup data on physical media available close to you. This can be:

1. Additional internal hard drive.
2. External hard drive
3. CD/DVD-ROM
4. Magnetic Type media
5. Local Network backup

Advantages:

These types of backup are:

1. Very handy, and until lately it was the simplest to do.
2. It psychologically feels safe to have your original as well as backup in your physical possession.

Today, I will suggest anyone who backs up his data using this option to think about it as a partial solution at best. I use this option, I am backing up my main PC data to my laptop every day and I also back up once a week to an external hard drive, but all this is only my SECONDARY backup solution.

Disadvantages:

On the other hand, the system suffers from certain flaws.

• All these types of backup will not protect your data completely. Some very dangerous threats still exist:
  • Theft
  • Fire
  • Natural disasters like earthquakes, floods and more
  • Manmade disasters like terrorists attacks, war
• It is mostly NOT a fully automatic backup. It depends on many human behavioral activities in order to be thorough and updated.

Second (Better) Option - Online Backup also known as Remote Backup

This is in my opinion the best solution; it covers all the disasters can happen

Advantages:

1. Automatic - Most systems will require just a short setup, and from that moment on they will be fully automatic.
2. Resides in a safe place - the same as keeping your money in the bank, away from home. It is better to keep your data in a safe place and not at home or at your office, where it is likely to suffer from the same physical calamity that may befall your main storage system.
3. Unlimited storage - Some of the systems will enable you to backup unlimited data, and this gives you peace of mind.

Disadvantages:

This short answer is: NONE.

The longer answer might include the psychological issue that many people still feel that if their data is somewhere out there it is less safe than near them. The truth, believe me, is exactly the opposite. This streak of distrust in others would have to be overcome.

- As usual, I will be happy to get your comments

What do you need to backup?

One of the issues regarding backup is - What is it that you need to backup? What are the most important files for you to backup?

Well, the answer for this, in my opinion, is EVERYTHING. What I meant is every file you have, whether you think if it is important or not, is important some way or the other to your functioning.  I even say that all the files in “My Documents” should be backed up. You can create a folder outside of “My Documents” and call it “Temp” or whatever, and put there all your UNIMPORTANT files. Look up  “Who need backup?”  for the type of files you surely need to backup:

• Emails and Contacts. If you keep them on the local LAN and don’t use Gmail/Yahoo/Live Mail etc’.
• Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint files - All Microsoft Office suite files should be backed up.
• Pictures - I backup every single picture I take.
• Video files - Same as pictures.

This list is obvious, but I must say again, there are services today that give you very large quota or even unlimited quota to backup. So don’t hesitate to use them - backup everything you can.

A Summary:

• Create a folder outside of “My Document” of your ‘Not Important’ files.
• Try to keep all the rest of your files in your “My Documents” folder.
• Backup your complete “My Documents” folder.

Coming Soon - An even more advanced guide about what you should backup.

- As usual, i will be happy to get your comments

Who needs backup?

The simple answer is: EVERYBODY.

Do you want to have a more advanced answer? Here it is:

If you are reading this post it means you are using a computer and it also means that you have at least one of the following set of files on your computer:

1. Emails - Just think, what would happen if all your emails and accounts will vanish? Just like that. Poof!
2. Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint files - Do you have any files of the Microsoft Office suite. School, work, CV, recipes, finance tables, letters, presentations and many more. What would happen if all files are no longer available to you?
3. Pictures - Family pictures, pictures from your travels, holiday pictures, pictures of your children growing up and many more. Let’s face it, hardly anyone goes for a printed picture these days; most of our pictures are being kept on our computer. What if you were to look back upon them ten or twenty years from now and find - no stored memories!
4. Video files - Today, many people also have short amazing and touching video clips of their children, grand children and so on, on their computer, I am sure it will be sad to lose it. Imagine losing the video of your son’s first birthday, or that wonderful holiday you spent by the sea.

The list above is mainly for home users. Now if you are a small business owner or a freelancer, then you have much more files to lose in the event of a crash. Despite fully knowing this, most small business owners and freelancers still don’t backup their files.

1. Interior designers, and architects - All CAD files are on your computer.  If they were to be lost, you’d lose valuable time re-constituting your ideas and plans.
2. Web designers - All your Photoshop, Freehand, Dreamweaver files and many more. You have painstakingly built up a collection over the years that you happily conjure up at the drop of a hat. What would you do if you were suddenly to realize your treasure is no longer available to you?
3. Web developers - HTML, ASP, ASPX, PHP, SQL and many more files, of your projects, and your clients. The scores of references and immediate use files that you bank upon all the time - what if they did the disappearing act?
4. Writers, reporters and more - your research, your articles, everything is on the computer What would you do if your oldest client were to ask for a copy of that article he got written and really liked - but you no longer have it! Or if your entire manuscript of the book you were writing is suddenly not there, however much you click the mouse?
5. Every business worth its name has accounting files that also reside on computers. Who spares the time and the effort to maintain ledger books these days? What if the tax authorities came calling and all you have to show them is - NOTHING!

OK, so we agree that backup is very important, and actually most of us knew it already, so why didn’t we do it?

I think that I didn’t do it, and many more don’t do it because we tend to think:

• It cannot happen to me. Yet, it does happen to real people, and you could be next.
• It is difficult
• It is expensive
• It is a real headache
• It needs a lot of time and effort

So we will hope that it will be OK, but it may not be. After all, people do get ill despite thinking they never will, and people die as well despite feeling ‘Not me!’ It’s a gloomy scenario I am painting, I know, but it is a fact.

However, almost everybody will encounter a loss of data accident at least once in his life time. Why am I so sure of this?

• Hardware failure - The hard disk is a mechanical instrument and they tend to get broken sometimes.
• User Error - A lost of data can also be an accidentally deletion of the file you are working for the last 4 days, and suddenly it is gone because you clicked “YES” to the question “Are you sure you want to completely delete this file?”. Or if your six year old opens your document folder instead of his games by mistake and does some irretrievable damage.
• Natural disaster - Fire, lightning stroke or many other things can completely ruin your computer and peripherals. Add to this the likelihood of manmade disasters. Remember 9/11? We cannot wish the threat away.
• Theft - Yes, burglars are still around, and if they take your laptop or desktop, they probably won’t bring it back.

These incidents can be very distressful. However, they can be much less distressful if you have a complete full and updated backup. You will feel much better, trust me. How many times since you were a child have you heard that saying ‘Prevention is better than cure’?

- Please comment, and tell me what happened to you. If you have any questions, I will be glad to answer.