The Basics of Backing Up
If you don't back up your files every day, I'm willing to bet you haven't lost anything important yet. Don't worry though, you will!
While I love the low costs and high capacity I get when I buy hard drives, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that it will eventually break. When a hard drive will crash cannot always be predicted, and so we must backup our data. Here are some factors to keep in mind:
- Back ups cannot be kept on your computer - the whole reason to back up is to guard against failure, fires, or theft. Keeping it on the system in question is hardly even backing up if you want to be technical!
Makes duplicates of your backups. What happens when you find out a backup didn't work? You'll be glad you kept duplicates from the week before. It never hurts to keep CD's for every month of the year in a safe place just in case the worst happens.
Do you keep important word files on your thumb drive or other portable devices? Those are just as likely to break as your computer is, and sooner than you think. Make sure the data on them is frequently synchronized back to your computer.
Move your backups somewhere safe. If the house burns down, so does the filing cabinet the backups were in. If data is important to you, take it offsite, like a safe deposit box for instance.
Backing up to another hard drive is not the best plan. You do get a lot of storage, but backing up to something that is just as likely as the original to break down may leave quite a mark. A DVD or CD makes a better permanent backup copy of things than a mechanical drive.
Use software to help you automate the task. Hey, I forget all the time. Plus I hate to wait for the backup to finish. Backup software is available at your local superstore for under $100 and can automate the process late at night while the computer is idle.
I don't take into account system availability here, which would mean keeping your data active even in the event of a failure, for times like that you want to set up a RAID system which can get a little more complicated, even though they are fun to build! Start small with your backups and work your way toward full redundancy so that you can keep working no matter what.
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