Your computer, computer software and the files on your computer are extremely valuable. An emergency could render you totally unprepared unless you take action now to back up and protect your computer, data and software.
Worst Case Scenarios
Try these "worst case" scenarios. You get a call at night, your office building has been destroyed by fire. Your home computer has been stolen as part of a burgulary. Your laptop was stolen from your car. Or, you need to leave your home within minutes due to an impending weather emergency - what do you take with you? Or, your hard drive fails and you can't get to your files.
With any scenario, you want to be prepared so you can recover data, make sure data doesn't fall into the wrong hands and be able to purchase and load a new computer with your programs and data.
Complete Image Backup
Using a disk imaging program is the best way to safely back up your system. An image backup creates a full image of the hard disk drive and backs that up to either another hard disk drive or to removable media. With a complete image backup, all of the information on your computer is saved.
This includes all applications, settings, data and documents. Everything. So, if your hard drive stops working, you can completely restore your drive quickly and your computer will be the same way it was when you last backed it up. We recommend the Acronis True Image Home disk imaging program.
We've used this ourselves to successfully back up laptop computers. When one of the hard drives failed, we had the drive replaced and then used the restore CD. The CD opened up the backup archive from our external drive and within a couple of hours, everything was completely restored
The Secure Savings Plan
There are three categories of computer files you'll want to back up. First, and most important, are the actual computer files (data) stored on the computer. These files represent your work and your life. Whether it's business data, your music collection or family photos, you'll want to make sure you perform regular backups.
By regular, we mean a backup that will be useful enough that you can recover your information and be up and running quickly. Businesses should back up their data at least once a day. For those of us who are busy creating information, daily backups or weekly at the least are recommended. If my computer died right now, I'd lose several hours of work. I can recover from that but would have a difficult time recovering an entire week's worth of work, email, etc.
When To Backup Your Data Files
Set up a schedule for backups and make regular backups of your computer files. Online secure data storage companies may be an option for you. You upload your files (using secure HTTPS) and have them stored offsite in a secure data center. Apple has the .Mac service and other companies provide this capability to automatically store your information.
It's easy to figure out how important it is to backup your data. Ask yourself how long it would take you to redo or reconstruct the information? If it's more than one hour, then spend the time to back up your data.
Applications Backed Up and Ready to Go
You'll want to be able to recover the applications you have on your computer. If you have added software, you'll need to be able to reinstall that software on a new computer quickly and conveniently. We recommend that you store your application software CDs in a very safe place offsite along with the licenses. Again, you will have to decide where a safe place will be - typically, it's not in the same buliding your computer is located in.
Last, you may need the operating system back up CDs provided when you purchase your computer. (or OS software). Many of the computers we purchase come with the operating system (Windows or Mac) and some standard software. Typically, the CDs that are shipped with your computer are backup CDs - again, be sure these are kept in a safe place.
Again, a disk imaging program like the Acronis True Image will back up all settings, applications and data for you automatically. And it will make incremental backups as well.
Verify the Backups
Experts recommend you not only backup your data but you verify that the data can be restored. Best bet is to store your data offsite. Home users, consider making backups and storing copies of important data in your safe deposit box. Expert's recommendation: back up critical data to offsite facilities or burn CD or DVDs and store those copies offsite. The more often your data changes, or, the more data you have, the more critical it is to back up data.
Guard the Backup Media
You'll want to protect your backups from falling into the wrong hands. Guard your backups as carefully as you would your laptop in a public place. Backup CDs and DVDs can have sensitive personal information on them. Don't leave them unprotected and unlocked. Make sure you store the backup media in a safe and secure place. A safe and secure place isn't somewhere in your office. Typically you want to store the backups in another building - or even a safe deposit box at a bank. Put the date on the backup. Always use good quality media to back up your data. And, if you are using an external hard drive or flash memory to store files, keep those secure.
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