Backup Issues
I have
yet to come across the computer user who has not lost or mislaid work at some
time or another. Often computer backup is one of those important areas that is
not urgent and therefore never quite seems to come to the top of today’s
priority list. That is until the day arrives when our vital data is missing,
corrupted, deleted or sent to oblivion by a hard disk failure. Many backup
devices are available for under £100 and others are virtually free. Some of the
common backup issues, questions and solutions are explored below.
1)
Remote Backup Solutions – Remote backup solutions can often be the simplest
backup method available, especially if the volume of data to be backed up is relatively
small i.e under 2GB. For as little as £5 per month / £60
per year data can be backed up securely every day to two secure remote sites. By
default up to 10 copies of each file are retained, which can then be accessed from
any computer in any location with the appropriate logon details. If seamless automatic
data backup is required then this is an ideal choice. For more information click
here: http://www.itcroydon.co.uk/downlo/DepositIT.htm
2)
CD-ROM / DVD Backup Devices – A Standard CD-ROM drive has been able
to read CD’s with a capacity of up to 640MB for the last ten years or so. More
recently Read / Write CD & DVD-ROMs have appeared on the market
that enable users to buy their own blank disks and store their own work
on these. Media costs start from well under £1 and CD’s can hold up to 640MB of
information compared to a DVD’s standard capacity of 4700 MB (
4.7GB ). CD’s are available in a single format whereas DVD’s come in
either + or – format depending on the drive purchased. ‘RW’ disks can be erased
and used again. Both CD & DVD-ROM read write devices are an excellent cost
effective way of storing large quantities of all types of files. With
appropriate software a DVD-ROM device could possible backup an entire computer,
although normally it is simpler to backup the documents, address book &
emails and then to re-install Windows XP in the event of a major problem occurring.
3)
Zip, Jazz & External Drives – Zip & Jazz devices are
effectively large floppy disks and hold between 120MB and several gigabytes of
information. At the cheaper end 120MB Zip disks store much more data than
floppy disks and the units are cheap to buy. Installation of especially the
external versions is quite straightforward. Although they have a niche in the
backup market the actual price of the disks is much more than for blank CD’s
and anyone wishing to store quantities of large files is normally better off
purchasing a DVD-ROM read / writer. Large volume Jazz Drives are quite
expensive to buy and run, however with appropriate
backup software they are more likely to offer disaster recovery options due to
their large capacity. External USB drives also offer a portable backup solution
with current drive capacities exceeding 500,000MB ( 500GB
).
4)
Backup Tape Units – Unlike the other forms of backup devices tape
backups are designed to offer full protection in the event of a system crash.
With the tapes typically as large as the computer hard disk a tape backup can
offer the option to restore the entire contents of the computer, files,
programs and operating system all from a single tape. In the event of the
computers hard disk being beyond repair it can rebuild an image of everything
that was on the old hard disk on to a new one. With appropriate backup software
a file server can backup to tape each computers hard disk over a network. Tapes
are reasonably expensive to buy and generally the backup tape units are the
most expensive form of storage, however when true disaster recovery is
required, they are the natural choice. Many computers can be restored from the
original CD’s quite quickly in which case a backup of just the files created is
required. However if the computer concerned is a file server, has been
configured at length, or does not have the original media backup, the disaster
recovery software option is essential. It is important to note that some basic
backup software, included with some operating systems, does not offer a
disaster recovery option. To facilitate this additional software has to be
purchased.
5)
A Backup Strategy - Having gone through the above types of backup
devices the most important question with any backup is has it actually worked.
Many organisations backup automatically on a daily basis, but never try
restoring files to see if the backup is actually working. Unless backups are
100% checked for reliability then they may prove to be worthless in the hour of
need. The exact backup strategy employed will depend largely on the individuals
or organisations requirements. At a basic level files should be saved every 10
–15 minutes whilst they are being worked on, as many people almost finish
complex documents only to find the computer crashes or they press the wrong
button and lose two hours work. At least one backup copy of all important files
should be made in case they become accidentally deleted, overwritten or lost
due to hardware failure. The backup regularity and the amount of backup media
used should be directly proportionate to the extent of the problem that would
be caused by losing all the data. In case of fire, damage or theft backup media
should be stored in a fire proof safe or a backup copy stored in a different
room / remote location.
1)
Effective file management compliments regular backup – Having all
data files in one folder that contains many relevant subfolders, facilitates a
simple backup and also reduces the chance of files being mislaid. To reduce the
time involved in data backups, this main folder can be backed up with the
option to only update files that have changed since the previous backup. In a mobile
office setting this folder can be updated between a desktop and laptop computer
via a network connection. Files can then be transferred and updated between
laptop and desktop computers, which also provides a valuable data backup.
Please
email support@ITCroydon.co.uk for
questions or support on backup issues