Your computer will crash. Your notebook may be stolen.
Your computer files can be permanently corrupted. Accept these facts, and
you can plan accordingly. But pretend "It only happens to other
people," and you're going to be crying the blues.
When any disaster strikes, the first question your PC repairperson will
ask you is, "When's the last time you backed up your data?"
Seldom do they hear the correct answer. Instead, victims of hard-drive
crashes, viruses and other hazards of computing stammer and stutter about
"forgetting to make a back up copy." Don't be one of those people!
Today's solutions are so inexpensive--and take practically no time at all.
For large businesses, the answer to backing up data can be expensive and
complicated. It can involve tapes, off-premises servers and other
complicated technologies.
For our small businesses, however, there is a range of simpler choices:
- Burning CDs or DVDs
- E-mailing files to yourself
- Copying files to a tiny USB drive
- Mirroring your hard drive to an external "one touch" hard
drive
- Using a Zip drive
- Backing up on a tape drive
Let's examine some of these choices in a bit more detail.
Burning CDs and DVDs is reliable and inexpensive; it also requires
the most consistent effort of the options to keep up to date. And your
labeling system has to be very detailed if you're going to make this one
work. If you're concerned about old backups falling into the wrong hands,
this wouldn't be ideal for you.
Tiny USB drives are the ideal solution for transporting files and
even some small programs. Two drives (512MB and 1GB) plug into any USB port
without installation software, and they're selling at very low prices these
days. However, tech experts have expressed concern about the vulnerability
of the drives to shocks and other hazards that could render the data
useless, and because they're so tiny, they can be easily misplaced.
Maxtor's popular "OneTouch II" external hard drives
(250GB and 300GB each, starting around $250 street) connect via FireWire or
USB to your PC or Mac. For PC users, it also creates historical backup
versions with full system restore to a point in time, something that's
unique to this way of backing up. And if it's lost or stolen, Maxtor
DriveLock protects the contents of your drive.
If you don't have as much stuff, you can use an inexpensive Iomega Zip
drive. With some 50 million Zip drives sold, ranging from 100MB to 750MB
storage each, their durable disks are able to take a fair amount of abuse.
So when that next hurricane comes into town and you're packing up stuff to
leave, you could stuff one small Zip disk in your pocket--or 519 regular
floppies. Some choice. Today's Zip drives come with free Iomega Sync to
automatically back up and synchronize your file revisions.
Tape drives are primarily aimed at the needs of network
administrators and, for the requirements of most small businesses, don't
offer the affordability, convenience, and "anywhere access" most
of the other choices give you. If your business has a substantial
amount of network files, this could be the solution for you and is best
discussed with your IT person.
Here's the bottom line: Bad things happen to good computers all the time.
These proven, affordable and uncomplicated solutions are the virtual
equivalent of wearing your seat belt in your car. And like a seat belt, your
system has to be in place before that awful moment of impact.
