The Art Of The Backup
“Please rescue my files, I can’t afford to lose everything.”
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard this plaintive cry as a support professional. The sad truth is that no matter how secure you believe your storage to be, things can go wrong. Hard drives can go faulty, laptops can be lost or stolen, folders can be deleted by people who don’t understand their significance. In every aspect of computing life, be it at home or at work, it is vitally important to make sure your important data - documents, photos etc. - is securely backed up ready for a worst case scenario.
How this is done can vary according to your needs. Some people like to do this manually, copying files regularly to removable media whether it is a CD or a portable drive. You can also schedule this to happen automatically on a fixed schedule, but you have to remember to keep the resultant copies secure - and more importantly test them every so often as well. What use is a backup if you have no way to access it?
Businesses with a central file server will often use high density tape drives which automatically copy all files to removable storage on a regular (often nightly basis). Again this needs careful management. Checking the tapes regularly, swapping them over every day but also ensuring that they too are kept secure. I’ve worked in offices where it was my job to take the previous day’s backup tape home with me overnight, so there was always one copy kept off the premises. Once a month we’d also put a tape in a fireproof safe and leave it there for a year.
These days cloud backup services are common and they can often be a good choice either a standalone or even better to run alongside your local backups. You pay a monthly or annual fee and then set up a software agent on each machine to be backed up. Either once a day or sometimes even in real time your files are encrypted and uploaded to your personal storage area. This means you can in theory retrieve them from any internet connected machine should the worst happen. But it also means you have to make sure your online credentials for this data are kept as secure as possible.
Whatever method you choose, it remains vitally important that your backups are kept secure and up to date. At the IT Guide we are experts in advising you on the best solution for your home or your office. We’ll tell you where you are going wrong, where you are putting your data at risk, and how to put all that right in the most cost effective way.
