Back-up your system & data

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1001 ways to back up your valuable data

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Computer Viruses

Backing up

How should I back-up my system?

With computers increasingly relied upon as the most important part of many peoples business', the need to safely keep all data intact is more important than ever.

It can be a time consuming job restoring a PC once something goes wrong but with a bit of forward planning, the headaches can be reduced. Several hardware and software solutions are commercially available especially for the job, along with other techniques you can use if you are on a budget and slightly more confident with handling files on PC's.

The answer to the question "How should I back-up my system" depends on several factors including:-

How often you use your system?
How many PC's you need to back-up?
How many computers you have and how they are connected?
How critical the information held on the system is. (if you lose it even temporarily could your business still function normally?)
Whether you have a server linked to machines on a Local Area Network?
How much data do you need to back-up. What sort of files are likely to be changing regularly?
How much experience of using computers the person with the responsibility for backing-up has?

Most methods of archiving data will also compress that data so that you can get more in the same amount of space. This compression ration varies, but some systems can easily compress by 40-80%!

Theft, fires, flooding and malfunction damage are the main causes of loss of data so storage of backed up media should be away from the office. Employees should take the discs home with them if possible, however, in some circumstances you may want to automate the process over-night, in which case the machine being backed-up to should be in a very secure place.

How often you should back-up your system depends slighly on the system you will use, but really you should back up EVERY DAY and then another major back up every month. You need enough media to be able to keep the daily backups for a week, weekly back-ups for a month and monthly ones for a year before going back over them. Keep this rotation going and you will be safe from any mishaps.

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Backing up : in brief

Available hardware solutions

ZIP drive (100Mb - 250Mb)
CD-ReWriter drive
JAZ drive (1Gb - 2Gb)
Tape drive (streaming)
8mm tape format
DAT tapes (or DDS digital data storage)
DLT tapes
Removable hard drives (any sizes)
Ultrium drives (200Gb +)

Available software solutions

Colorado / Seagate (budget)
Dantz (large range of products)
ARC Serve 2000 (high-end)
Internet storage service (subscription service - also, for convenience a fast Web connection is required)
Power Quest Drive Image
Norton Ghost

Approximate media / hardware costs table

ZIP drive (£70 - £200)
ZIP disks (£5 - £25 each)
CD-ReWriter drive (£80 - £200)
Blank CD's (20 x 640Mb for £10)
JAZ drive (£300)
JAZ disks (£50)
Tape drive (£80 - £300)
Tapes (vary alot)
8mm tape format (£80 - £300)
Tapes (vary alot)
DAT drive (£300)
DAT tapes (vary alot)
DLT drive (£80 - £300)
DLT tapes (£10 each)
Removable hard drives (any sizes)
From £50 up to £400
Ultrium drives (200Gb +)

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