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How To Backup Your Hard Drive
By Otis F. Cooper

We all know that we should back up our system as soon as possible. But if you re like most of us, you will get to it tomorrow. The problem is that tomorrow rarely ever comes until you experience a serious computer failure and then it’s too late.

Taking the time to backup your data or entire hard drive is not as painstaking as it may seem. And the rewards of doing so will be great should your system experience a crash.

WINDOWS AND OTHER BACKUP SOFTWARE

If you have Windows XP you will need to install the new Windows backup utility from the Windows XP cdrom. Just place the WinXP cdrom in your cdrom drive and locate the line D:VALEADDMSFTNTBACKUP.

Here you see the first letter as D but if your optical drive has a different drive letter, exchange the D with your drive s letter. To install the utility, click on the file named NTBackup.msi.

The backup utility will be installed to the system tools group. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and Backup. There is a neat wizard that will walk you through the backup process.

WinXP s backup utility will backup your entire hard drive and will make a recovery disk to boot.

One neat third party backup software you can try is NewTech InfoSystems at http://www.ntius.com where you can download their trial version and put it to use for 30 days. And if it’s your cup of tea, the full version will run you about $79.95

INCREMENTAL OR DIFFERENTIAL BACKUPS

You should back up your entire hard drive when you perform your first backup. After that it is best to perform an Incremental backup. This type of backup only allows you to backup files that have changed since your last performed backup.

Differential Backups copy changed files that have been added since you last did your entire backup. This type of backup is more detailed than incremental backups and is easier to restore.

BACKUP STORAGE DEVICES

You can backup your files on cdroms and have the files compressed to save both space and backup time. WinXP will compress folders, subfolders, and files during backup.

You can purchase compression software that will do the same, saving you cdrom storage space. The compressed files are automatically uncompressed once they are restored onto your hard drive.

You can also use a second hard drive as your backup storage device. We use two backup hard drives to be certain Ultimate PC Repair is up and running 24/7.

You can either purchase an internal hard drive and install it to your ide cable, or you may want to purchase an external hard drive that connects to your Universal Serial Bus or USB Port.

The advantage of the external drives is that they have very large amounts of storage space, transfer data fast, and can be moved from your computer to any other computer.

We use the Western Digital 170 Gigabyte External Hard Drive and we simply bounce it around to either one of our four computers with the greatest of ease.

USING ONLINE BACKUP SERVICES

You may also consider online services for backing up your data. If you lose all your backup data, say due to a natural disaster such as a flood, your online data is right there waiting for you.

Another advantage of online backups is that you can access, upload, or download your data from any location. It is best to use high speed internet access if you re considering online data storage.

One such online backup service is Istorage located at http://www.iomega.com/istorage and charges from $2.49 a month for 50MBs to $17.95 a month for a big 1,000MBs of storage.

Or you can check out FilesAnywhere located at the url http://www.filesanywhere.com

Still another online service to try is CapSure located at http://www.capsure.com

Backup your system now in one way or another if you have not done so. If you have critical data that you simply cannot do without, take the time to invest in a backup device or one of the many online backup services.

Stop and perform those backups as soon as possible. You will be thankful you did should something go wrong with your computer. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

About The Author

Otis F. Cooper is the author of the award winning PC Super Pack, the Computer Training By Video course. For hundreds more free PC repair tips, sign up for his bi-monthly newsletter and learn the PC free at http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com

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http://EzineArticles.com/?How-To-Backup-Your-Hard-Drive&id=32068

Creating a Backup Plan
By Stephen Bucaro

Your company s data may be its most important asset. Imagine a large corporation with millions of dollars of account receivable and account payable data stored on their network. A fire causes massive data loss. How much work would be required to re-create the lost data? Without backups, the company may not survive the disaster.

Choosing a backup media is important, but in this article I ll focus on creating a plan for the type and frequency of backups. Let s assume you will use some type of tape backup media.

If your company has only a small amount of data, you may be able to perform a full backup every night. You would need two tapes which you would alternate in case the most recent full backup turns out defective. At least you have a previous one to go back to. You would store the tapes in a secure off-site location to avoid being destroyed in the same disaster that might destroy the original data.

When you perform a full backup, each file that gets baked up has the “archive” attribute in its file properties set to zero.

The archive attribute is a flag stored for each file that has been created or modified. It indicates that the file needs to be archived. Backup programs can reduce the size of backups by saving only files which have been modified since the previous backup. When the file is saved in a full or incremental backup, the archive bit is set to one.

In Windows, you can view the archive attribute for any file by right-clicking the file in Windows Explorer and selecting “Properties” in the popup menu. In the “Properties” dialog box, click on the “Advanced…” button.

If your company has a large amount of data, it would be too time consuming to perform a full backup every night. Instead, you would perform a full backup only on Friday nights, and perform a “differential” backup on other weekday night. This backup plan would require six tapes.

- A differential backup saves all files that have been created or modified since the last FULL backup.

- Restoring with differential backups is easy. You need just use two tapes. First restore the last full backup. Then restore the last differential backup.

A differential backup doesn t reset the archive attribute. The next time you perform a differential backup, it will again save all the files that have changed since the last full backup. So each night, the differential backup will get progressively larger until the next you perfrom a full backup.

If your company has a great amount of data that changes every day, it would be too time consuming to perform a differential backup every night. Instead, you might perform a full backup on Friday nights, and an “incremental” backup on other weekday night.

- An incremental backup saves only the files that have changed since the last full or incremental backup.

An incremental backup checks the archive attribute to determine if the file has changed and needs to be backed up. Then it resets the archive attribute. An incremental backup stays small because it includes only files that have changed since the last full or incremental backup.

- Restoring with incremental backups is more time consuming. First, restore the last full backup. Then restore all the incremental backups made since the full backup, in the order they were made. The only reason to use an incremental backup scheme is if differential backups become too large, requiring more than one tape.

Many company networks continue to opperate on Saturday and even Sunday. In this case, you would need to add the required additional tapes to the plan.

If during the day your company creates a large volume of data, or a small amount of data that is too critical to wait for the standard night time backup, you can perform a copy backup. To do this, you just copy the selected files to a backup media.

Copyright(C) 2004 Bucaro TecHelp.

Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.

About The Author

Stephen Bucaro

To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp.

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http://EzineArticles.com/?Creating-a-Backup-Plan&id=32244

Data Backup, The Why How When for Business or Home
By Greg Martyn

1. What you should be doing about data backup and why?
2. Fine electro-mechanical devices to backup.
3. Meant to do it!
4. Once Bitten.
5. Backup, a mistaken or confused name.
6. What do you need to do today to start a backup plan or backup program?
7. Let’s get organised.
8. Things to save or to backup.
9. Our recommended Backup System.
10. Near worst case scenario. When you most need a backup to restore from.
11. Our own system. How we backup our data.
12. Remember, Backup, start today.

1. Why do a data backup?
What you should be doing and why?
Computers always go perfectly. Right? What would you do without your PC? Computers can and do fail usually at the worst possible time. They may get stolen, trashed or crash. Most of us deal with the problems as and when they occur.
There are times though, when a little bit of planning and forethought pays big dividends.

2. Fine electro-mechanical devices.
The hard drive in your computer has both electronic and mechanical components that work with very fine tolerances where the head literally flies a fraction of a millimeter above the disks fast spinning surface. Measurements a fraction of a human hair thickness are not unusual. So bumping or dropping them or having PC power problems causes the components to literally crash and may result in irreparable damage.

3. Meant to do it!
Most business people and many home users are aware of the need to Backup (or copy, in easy terms) their information to another place for safe keeping. After failures they often say ‘I meant to do it but never made the time.’

4. Once Bitten.
Every day before they walk out of the office they’ll religiously run or at least start the backup going. In the morning they’ll check and make sure all went Ok with the Backup and look at any errors reported.

5. Backup, a mistaken or confused name!
Simply put, Data Backup is the ability to recreate or restore the system you had working before the PC failure or loss.
It may be called Copy, Save, Burn, Write. Unfortunately the word Backup is often used different ways. And means different things in different places!
Bookkeeping software typically prompts you to backup your data (the company accounts and ledgers, in other words). But the backup is usually on the PC not another disk or computer. So if that computer goes missing, then the company bookkeeping info is gone too.
You need to do this type of data Backup for bookkeeping and company client lists.
But there’s more to do. Make a note where it goes to so you can Backup or copy it to another disk, CD, ZIP or Flash device you can take home.

6. What do you need to do today?
Simple. Work out what you use your computers for that you simply couldn’t do without if it wasn’t there tomorrow.
Would your business or personal relationships STOP without the ability to re-create the computer info you’re using?
Please. Take a minute to read the full story below.

7. Let’s get organised.
You’ll need: -
any equipment and software to make the backup
a plan to follow to do it regularly
to backup what you should
to store it somewhere safe
to write down the backups done
reminders to do it next time
most of all the patience to wait and do it whenever it’s due.
Lastly, it should be tested that you can recover from disaster if it ever occurs.

8. Things to save.
Information to Backup should include Documents Spreadsheets
Bookkeeping &amp Transaction data Address Books Lists Emails Personal information, Photos Downloaded Programs and Licenses Favorites
Special things Internet &amp Email settings Regulatory matters.
Many of these items are irreplaceable, so they should be safeguarded.

9. Our recommended backup system.
Two copies, one at your place and one at a friends place.
Small Backup, things that change frequently, done daily.
Big Backup, total Backup of your PC because the info is organised in a disorganized sort of way, spread over the hard drive in hard to find places, done weekly or monthly.
More than one PC?
If you have more than one PC you may need to re-think and re-organise where information is stored in the computers.
A central point for all company data is easier to manage and Backup than data in all the odd places on the computer. You may investigate ’synchronizing’ data so it’s naturally on more than one PC.

10. Near worst case scenario.
If the Hard drive fails the information may be recoverable.
But it’s a very expensive job by the professionals.
Occasionally one of our customers has needed to retrieve data from a dead hard drive. We recommend a particular company who has always managed to recover the data, but there’s a lot of lost time and un-necessary expense especially when compared to the simple smart solution where you take all the necessary precautions and do the backup first.

We hope you never see one of these errors:-
an MYOB fatal error 1199 as one of our customers did recently. It translates to the data file causing this error is definitely unusable and irrepairable. It can only be fixed by restoring your data from your most recent backup. (Do you have a recent Backup?)
or HAL.DLL is missing or corrupt. It translated (in this case) to the Windows folder has disappeared. Anything at all that was stored in the windows folder is GONE. Windows needs to be re-installed from the original media (CD), Updated and Settings restored from a recent backup.
Occasionally we (you or I) will start working on a document or data file and have a little accident. Accidents happen to us all occasionally. The simplest way is often to simply restore from the most recent backup, or waste a lot of productive time just getting things back to the way before we commenced, and made the accident.
Just imagine what the worst case would be!

11. Our own system. How we backup.
Pixel ITT has these systems in place.
Daily, MYOB, when closing company data the data integrity is checked and Zipped up on the C Drive. It takes about 3 minutes.

Monday, 9am, Customer database and documents, Zipped into one file on C Drive. Takes 5 to 10 minutes at the start of day.

Monday to Friday, 9.50pm, Automatic Backup using XXCopy Pro of My Documents Folder which includes, MYOB, Customer data, Documents, saved to a redundant (older) PC as a file server, 5 minutes unattended. Older PC must be turned on and available on the office network.

Monday to Friday, 10pm, Automatic Unattended Backup of daily data important to business, MYOB, Customer data, Documents, Security info saved to CD, 3 to 5 minutes usually unattended.

Every 2nd Saturday, 2 secondary PC’s, Full incremental backup, to CD on main PC. Takes 10 to 20 minutes attended.

Every 4th Saturday, Main PC, Full incremental backup to CD on main PC, takes 60 to 120 minutes attended.

What’s missing in our backup system?
Off-site backup copy could be more recent but has the main ingredients of our business in a workable version.
Backup test has been performed to restore secondary PC’s only. The main PC will be done when time permits or it becomes necessary.

12. Remember, Backup, start today.
We tell our customers, whether they re small business clients or home computer users at every chance we get, to backup, somehow, but backup regardless. We ve all got cd burners and cd writing software these days, but still most clients do not have a recent data backup or use the backup software that came with their computer. If the worst disaster happens, we re called in to clean up the situation and regretfully tell the customer if they didn t backup before the computer was stolen or broken there s really nothing we can do to ease their pain whether it s business critical data or data like home pictures and email address contact lists.

So BACKUP, Backup, backup just do a BACKUP.

Greg Martyn is a partner in Pixel ITT providing computer service and support in the St George and Sutherland area south of Sydney Australia.
Pixel ITT also supply software for backup, internet security, antivirus and firewall in Australia.
Greg Martyn has been in a technicial role since 1967, and until 2000 worked for OTC and Telstra. Pixel ITT use and recommend the software we sell including EMCDantz Retrospect Pro which is our main backup tool. Trial software and more info is available through http://www.pixelitt.com.au.

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http://EzineArticles.com/?Data-Backup,-The-Why-How-When-for-Business-or-Home&id=129598

The Need for a Backup Strategy
By Aleksey Rubin

So you&amprsquove decided to backup your data but what is the next step? You must have a backup strategy irrespective of whether you are a home user or a business user. The depth of the strategy is the only variant between these two types of users.

As time goes by people and businesses are facing massive and ever-increasing amounts of data that are difficult to manage and that remain unprotected. In this light, the need for a backup strategy becomes critical. Let me just take email as an example: the 12/2004 issue of Smart Computing reports that 88% of adult PC users send and receive emails. The International Data Corporation reports that 16.8 trillion emails were transmitted in 2004 with this figure climbing to 19.7 trillion this year. According to Smart Computing, American businesses send about 9 billion emails a day. On average, home-users transmit around 435kb in email attachments every day. One other research firm estimates that typical corporations with 5000 employees accumulate 4 terabytes of emails every year. The size of my Outlook PST file for 2004 at work rested at 1.4Gb at home it was 650Mb! And finally, Dataquest estimates that the total number of hard disk drives shipped in 2002 rests at 212.5m units representing around 8.5m terabytes of storage space.

Home-user data includes documents, audio and video files, scanned images, and digital photos. Businesses have marketing collateral developed and stored electronically, customer information stacked in databases, financial records posted in accounting packages, budgets and business plans recorded on network storage devices. As this list grows, the need for a backup strategy becomes even more obvious!

We usually advise customers to look at 5 key elements of any backup strategy:

1. Invest in good Backup Software: Read the reviews, visit the websites and look out for features and assurances that the product you are buying is reliable, fast and easy to use. Spend time reading the websites of the various suppliers. Some products cost no more than $40 but your data costs much more. Losing your data because the software you have bought is not effective means that you have thrown away an extra $40!

2. Plan Your Backups: Most software packages on the market have schedulers. Use these schedulers. It doesn&amprsquot take much time to set up a timetable for backups. Depending on how many times you use your PC you can schedule your periodical backups: at work, I backup every day at 9 a.m.. At home, I backup once a week.

3. Check the Integrity of your Restore: Even though you have backed up, what guarantee do you have that your data can be restored when disaster hits? The best way to ensure full &ampldquorestorability&amprdquo of your data is to buy a backup product that has bit-level verification (like WinBackup 2.0). Such a feature makes sure that while the product is performing your backup it checks all the data down to the level of bits and bytes. In essence, the software first back up the data and then automatically performs a test restore to make sure that every single bit has been copied.

4. Check the Integrity of your Backup Medium: You can have the best software in the world and back your data every hour, however, if you do not have a good medium to store your archives, you are doomed. The second best way to ensure the restorability of your data is to choose good mediums and to do regular test restores from them.

5. Check your hard drives regularly and make sure you have good anti-spyware and anti-virus software. There is no harm in checking hard drives for errors and bad sectors as these drives do fail over time.

Data Recovery and Backup Software

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http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Need-for-a-Backup-Strategy&id=312104

Downloadable Backup Software
By Eddie Tobey

Backup software ranges from simple programs that help you copy files to a floppy or CD to complex software packages that backup thousands of networked computers. There are backup software programs that can be downloaded directly from the Internet.

Downloadable backup programs enable you to store your data in a variety of storing devices such as tapes, CDs, DVDs, and hard drives. Downloadable backup software programs can be used in different types of computers such as personal computers, local network computers, and large professional computer networks.

Downloadable backup software may be freeware or payware programs. Freeware programs are usually suitable only for free software such as GNU and Linux. Before you download a backup software program, make sure that it is suitable for the operating system you use in your computer. Most downloadable backup software packages run in operating systems such as Windows 98/Me/NT4/2000/XP/2003. Downloadable backup software can be full backup software, differential backup software, or incremental backup software. Full backup software is used for the full restoring of a crashed hard drive. Differential backup software packages restore selected files. Incremental backup software helps you restore data present on specified date and time.

Most downloadable backup software companies provide online information on their products and prices. Some allow comparisons of their products and prices with others. Most downloadable backup software programs have shareware versions, which are free trail versions of the original software.

Downloadable backup software can be hard drive backup software, online backup software, or utility backup software. The downloading procedure is generally easy and can be done by following the instructions. You can keep a copy of the downloaded software program on a CD or DVD for future use.

Backup Software provides detailed information on Backup Software, CD ROM Backup Software, Free Backup Software, Computer Backup Software and more. Backup Software is affiliated with Network Status Monitoring Software.

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http://EzineArticles.com/?Downloadable-Backup-Software&id=302277

You Need to Backup
By Robert Hanania

It doesn’t matter if you paid $500.00 or $2000.00 to purchase a new computer for your home or business you will defiantly want to have some kind of insurance and backing up your computer is the best form of protection there is.

When anyone buys a computer today they are most likely to be using windows, the most widely accepted operating system on the market. Windows comes with a software utility called backup that lets the user copy all their files and other data onto various media. It is recommended to backup your computer once a week, but if a lot of data is added within a couple of days or so you may consider so daily. First and foremost a backup should include your system settings and important files, and then you can pick and choose to copy e-mail, favorites, pictures, ect. Or make a full backup to cover everything.

There are problems with backups of the human sort. It pains me to say some people (even professionals) are lazy or inconsistent when it comes to backups. They either forget or simply don’t bother until it’s too late because the backup was not updated to include their current data this oversight can ruin a business! Some people will also neglect to have in place having any sort of labeling system for past and current backups with dates, times or other crucial information. If you are backing up onto magnetic tapes like floppy disks (these are not practical anymore because they only hold about 1.5mb of data), you should keep them away from anything that can produce a magnate field like motors, phones and power supplies also keep them away from excessive heat, cold and moisture.

The media used depends on factors like cost, time, type, and connivance of use. The most common type of media backup used is CD-R and CD-RW the first one is cheap but you will use a lot of them for a full backup because they hold only 650 MB of data and you will not be able to hold video files. The second is more expensive and has the same limitations (as CD-R’s), but has the ability to be written on again and again (Re- Writeable).

Another way to go is by using a DVD-R or DVD-RW disks that can hold around 5 GB (GigaBites) of data an can hold digital video files as well. (That’s my personal favorite).

Zip drives are also a preferred storage device that can hold 750 MB and also external hard drives that up to 150 GB. There are other types of data storage media, these are just a few.

What it boils down to is everyone should use there backups correctly, use the best media for your present needs, but also try to anticipate what you might need in the future.

About the Author

Robert Hanania is the owner and operator of Data And File Recovery Dot Com If you would like to contact him, please visit his Website

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http://EzineArticles.com/?You-Need-to-Backup&id=115279

Backup Your Data On Your Computer Or Lose It Forever
By Gregg Hall

Computers, though they are meant to make our lives generally easier, depending on the perception, usually are much like a double-edged sword. Any person, who has used a computer for a while, will have an understanding on just how safe their date is. More the fact, that safe date simply does not exist, when it comes to computers. It really does not matter what type of work you are doing you have experienced computer failure likely numerous times. Occasionally, as is expected, we will experience disruptions within the work we are doing on the computer rather we are laying out a business plan, writing a book, or simply surfing the internet.

Each piece of data you store upon your computer is in danger of a variety of threats. Because of this, regular computer users have integrated recovery of data directly into our knowledge of computers. While it is possible to recover data, it does not mean it is always a necessity. There are rules all computer users should know and apply the following will help in preventing the need to use data recovery.

You should practice regular backups of:

Games you have Saved

Your System Settings

My Documents Folder

My Music Folder

My Pictures Folder

Drivers

Applications that you do not have copies of

It is important to back up the above because doing so will help you prevent the need to use data recovery. When backing up these items you should use secondary method of storage such as tapes, disks, floppies, or zip drives, this allows you to ensure hard disk recovery.

Once you have performed the backup, you will want to keep the backup medium stored in a location away from your computer where it will be protected from contamination, heat, and dust, all of which may destroy the data contained on the storage medium. This helps in prevent data recovery from becoming necessary.

Data recovery is still possible, if you accidentally delete a much-needed file. However, before running out to buy the data recovery software, you will want to look into your recycle bin. The recycle bin is the holding folder before permanent deletion. If you have accidentally deleted an important file, first look there and data recovery could be as easy and just restoring the file. However, once it has been emptied, recovering in this manner is not longer available.

If you have ever suffered a crash you know how crucial it is to back up your computer, I have and I know the damage that can be done. Take the time to back up your computer before it is too late.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about data backup and Hard Disk Data Recovery at http://www.datarecoveryfast.com

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http://EzineArticles.com/?Backup-Your-Data-On-Your-Computer-Or-Lose-It-Forever&id=283425

Backup Software
By Eddie Tobey

Creating a backup for the data in a computer or any electronic storage device is very important. Most equipment, including personal computers, have a good chance of “crashing,” which is the failure of the hard disk on which the data is stored. When a hard disk crashes, all the data is inevitably lost.

This possible loss is the main reason for creating backups of the data that we have and that we are likely to use sometime in the future. The frequency of backup creation depends on the usage level of the system, the kinds of files stored, the frequency of changes made to the data, and the importance of the data. Some people store a lot of files on their computers and keep adding new ones continuously. Such people need a daily or even an hourly backup.

There are different kinds of backups: full backup (creates backup for every file and folder in the system) incremental backup (only the changes are copied) unattended backup (the backup can be programmed to take place at a certain time without the active participation of the user) archive or disk image (option to create backup for just files or the whole disk) differential backup (creates backup for only changed files and newer versions of the files) and snapshot backup.

Backups can be made into a whole lot of different devices: compact disks, DVDs, floppy disks, tapes, printouts, removable hard disks, online servers, and so on. Backups can also be made into fixed media like another part of the hard disk or to another computer on the same network. Each of these has different capacities, security limits, conveniences, and risks. It is advisable to back up into more than one media for reducing risk.

The main criteria to be considered while purchasing a backup software program are the ease of operation, ability to backup without continuous monitoring, ability to handle different backup formats like hard disks and CDs, ability to restore with minimum errors, easy accessibility to backup files, ability to have different compression levels for different kinds of files, ability to backup over FTP, USB drives and networks, and ability to verify whether the files have been saved well.

There are several kinds of backup software available today. Some of the best programs include the Genie Backup Manager, NTI BackupNow!, Novastor NovaBackup, Handy Backup, Double Image, ABC Backup, Absolute Backup, Active Backup Expert, Advanced Backup, AKG Backup, Argentum Software, Avail Solutions, BackRex Backup, Backup Buddy, Data Sheriff, Disk2disk and several others. There are also free downloadable backup software programs such as TaskZip, EZBack-it-up, SyncBack, IceMirror, Version, Freebyte, Back4Win, MOB, My Own Backup, Workgroup, Simply Safe, and many more. Most of these software packages come with many other advanced functions such as password protection, restoring damaged backups, filtering of files and storing them accordingly, compression capabilities and several others. Backup software can be downloaded for free from the Internet. Some advanced software programs have to be purchased.

Backup Software provides detailed information on Backup Software, CD ROM Backup Software, Free Backup Software, Computer Backup Software and more. Backup Software is affiliated with Network Status Monitoring Software.

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http://EzineArticles.com/?Backup-Software&id=195962

Truth about Data Backup
By Lee Morrell

Secure data backup has always been an issue for business. Let alone the fact that we live in a technologically-advanced society: most of us have not changed since the times when people used to keep their valuable items wrapped up in a bundle, hidden in their house. Take the data backup organization of companies and data centric organizations, for example.

When the Bunsfield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire exploded in the morning of 11 December 2005, the truth about data backup and restoration became a serious issue. The huge explosions demolished all surrounding buildings, which could be heard at a radius of a hundred miles (160 km). The storage tanks were extinguished in two days, just to re-ignite on the 13th of December. The whole store was then left to burn to the ground. The unconfined vapor cloud explosion was another problem. The report claims that the vast explosion could be heard as far away as France and the Netherlands. There were over 700 companies within a 10- mile radius of the explosion. You can imagine exactly what happened to their data files, stored on tapes somewhere in a defeated safes. Fire-proof saves can really be a bargain, but only if the ruins of the falling building have not covered the said safe! After an explosion of such a rank, for example, this method of backup will prove its incompatibility to today’s perils that lay ahead of some companies. What if a building falls down, as happened to an IT managed services company waiting to transport its data offsite. The safe could not be uncovered, and the whole information was lost. A bankruptcy is what happens after such incidents, thinking about a logical sequence of events. The company was forced to issue a statement admitting its ability to service its customers had been “temporarily affected”, with backup systems rendered inoperable.

This was just an example, posed to illustrate the real dangers of irrational data backup, which many companies use to consider “safe”. Even more dangerous accidents can happen to a company, destroying all its mission critical files and data. Let’s involve some statistics. 75% of Companies Believe Their Data Is Safe if They Backup to Tape. They leave their valuable information unsafe and rely on procedures such as tape backup. Tapes can be stolen, destroyed, sold to rivals. Anything can happen to tapes. 97% of Companies Believe Their Data Is Safe if They Backup to Tape and Store the Media Offsite. Offsite media storage is no longer enough the information is not safe, if the backup tapes are destroyed by accident. Backup to Tape is No Longer Enough. The worst thing is that the highly threatened companies still don’t realize it. Pay attention that Buncefield was only the 5th largest of over 50 refinery, storage and distribution sites in the UK, all of which are situated near major motorways and conurbations.

The question that you should pose to your mind is whether you can afford to be struck by a disaster. The tape method of backup is no longer totally safe. The solution we offer to you is called Offsite Backup: an automatic backup of your data at two remote data centers in different countries, which have redundant connections between themselves. As your data is secured in two different countries, the whole information can be accessed any time at any day that you choose. The replication of your data in two different centers is a real solution to all your security bothers.

PerfectBackup offers a simple, affordable and secure way to backup all your files: Exchange, SQL, MySQL, Oracle and Lotus data, ensuring the whole data set will always be available. For further details about our service, please visit www.perfectbackup.co.uk. Our site will be a serious guideline to all your questions. PerfectBackup is the solution offering nothing but benefits: it combines the strong points of tape and offsite backup, eliminating the traditional drawbacks. It will protect your data a secure offsite location, and make you more self-assertive about the further enlargement of your company.

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Backup and Recovery for Smaller Organisations–How to Build an Effective Data Backup Strategy
By Lee Morrell

There are many factors which will potentially determine your best data backup strategy. Regardless of your companies size the thought process should be the same. The main factors to take into account are the amount of data being backed up, how quickly you need to backup and more importantly, how quickly you need to restore and the final factor will be the best data medium for you.

Put yourself in the shoes of Mr Unlucky, arriving at work to find, for what ever reason, all your data has been lost. All your customer database, accounts, stock levels and emails have been lost! How could you possibly recover from this and how long could your company stay in business?
It is an agreed fact if you do not backup your data and your data is lost a high percentage of businesses will cease to trade thereafter. Facts also show that those companies who do somehow initially continue to stay alive, 90% fail within two years.
Believe me you do not need to have a major catastrophe to wipe critical information. A disk failure, equipment failure or sudden loss of electricity can do it. Human error is a big factor and can potentially lead to lost servers or accidental deletion of data or major disasters such as, fires to floods and explosions (Bunsfield Oil Refinery), please do not forget malicious actions from crackers, viruses and loss of service attacks.

Another point we all agree on is not if you could lose data, it s when you will lose data. Although hardware infrastructure, software and peripheral network equipment easily can be replaced, the most valued asset, your data, cannot.

We have seen a growing number of government legislations, laws and regulations regarding data storage and privacy. All of which you are now accountable for. Much of this new law has been created because of identity theft as well as the unintentional or intentional posting of such sensitive data on the Internet. Like it or not, it s your responsibility to keep pace with all such laws, I cannot do into the legal aspect as it is a mine field and there are different laws for different types of Developing an Effective.

Data Backup Strategy

Now is the time to create a secure and manageable backup strategy. There is no point doing this after a disaster has struck, it is very minimize data loss and business losses whilst increasing business continuity. Your backup plan should be simple as possible, very specific whilst easy as possible to follow and must include all steps, starting with your initial requirements. You should include what data is critical and prioritize accordingly. How often you backup should not depend on the size or the nature of your company but you should base your solution around the following questions:-

1) Are you backing up a single server or many?

2) Are all your computers and servers located in a single office or do you have remote sites spread around the county?

3) Does your data change by only a few MB per week or by GB’s per day?

4) Is all of your data stored in a single server, or is your data spread around many servers?

5) Is your data simple file data which can be restored easily, or is it spread over various databases running on different operating systems?

6) Are you a 24 x 7 or 9 x 5 operation?

When you have answered the above, you are in a position to prepare a data backup and data recovery assessment which will addresses the following details:

1) What data needs protection? How much is active? How much is old and should be archived or how much data is duplicated or useless?

2) Most important question, what is your recovery window. In other words, how long can you survive without your data?

3) How much money will you lose for each day of downtime?

4) Is your proposed backup media reliable? Please bear in mind that backing up files does not mean you are able to restore your original data. For example, many companies have sought to recover data from backup tapes only to discover the tapes are corrupt or failed to record, and data is lost.

5) How flexible do you need you backup to be, is your data growing rapidly, does your data change a lot day by day?

Time Retention, how long do you need to save your data?
Many industries have to adhere to various laws which regulate or stipulate how long you must archive certain data. Other industries, including medical and legal, have their own data retention regulations mandated. Remember it is your companies responsibility to keep up to and adhere to these regulations and you must understand the legal consequences if you do not comply. As you can imagine consequences can be harsh which may include fines, sanctions or even orders to shut down your business. Such legal requirements are addressed by specific backup solutions.

What Is Your Backup Window?
How much time can you allocate to creating backups? Please take into account your schedule, should your backup take place hourly, daily, weekly or monthly? Remember, the more frequently you back up data, the less data you will lose and you can recover an closer to the exact copy of what you need. The greater the frequency of backup means greater hardware and software and management costs.

Costs
Costs should never be overlooked when creating your backup strategy. Your initial costs include hardware, software and, the backup media itself, don’t expect much change from ?4,000, but don t forget the cost of managing your backup, over a 3 year period management will cost more than the actual data backup hardware and software put together.

Building a Data Protection Strategy
All data protection strategies contain three parts: the backup element, archive element and the recovery element. Let us start looking the backup element of the strategy.
When building a backup plan you must view several factors, starting with management. Who will control and manage your backup procedure? Will it be a single administrator, you, or do have an IT team with set roles for managing and maintaining backups on a regular basis? Even if your backup solution is automated someone must be still be responsible for checking and maintaining your system. Without this clear system, your data backup will quickly become unusable.

Everything you have read details how an effective backup plan is carried out, as you can imagine this can be an expensive and time consuming task. To find out how your data backup solution can be achieved easily and affordably, please visit www.perfectbackup.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lee_Morrell
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