Backing Up Your Data

As more and more of the information you need to do business is stored on your computer, regular backups of your hard drive become imperative. Backing up data is a simple and inexpensive procedure. A small cash investment and a few days of getting into the habit are all it takes to make certain that you don't "crash" into an electronic brick wall. 

What exactly is a backup?

Making a backup is simply making an electronic copy of your hard drive. If you accidentally delete a file, or delete one and then find that you need it, you can retrieve a copy of it from the backup you made. If your hard drive crashes, you can "restore" a complete copy of your hard drive onto the old one after reformatting, or onto a new one. There are two types of backups: full and incremental. A full backup is simply a complete copy of everything on the hard drive. An incremental backup is a copy of any files which have changed, or any new files added, since the last backup. Most backup systems will use a combination of these two (periodic full backups with regular incremental backups in between).

Backups are compressed copies of the data on your hard drive, which means (a) you can get more data squeezed onto a tape, and (b) you can't just read files off a tape like you can off a floppy diskette. Backups have to be "restored" by the software used to create them, before the files are useable. 

If you are one of those people that still maintains most of your data on removable discs and and don't believe that you need to perform backups because you only store "software" on the hard drive, you need to reconsider. More and more often software vendors are making their software, upgrades and patches available on the Internet. In the old days, if your computer crashed you could simply re-install your software from the software discs you received when you purchased it. Now, suppose you bought your software over the Internet and simply downloaded the files and do not have a backup of your hard drive. If your computer crashes you will spend the next few days working with vendors trying to replace your software. If the software you downloaded included software needed to connect to the Internet, you will not be able to download the replacement software even if the vendor is willing to allow you to download a replacement. Bottom line is that any one I have ever known that crashed a hard drive and did not have a backup, now maintains periodic backups of their system. It's amazing how much of our actions are a result of pain (emotional or physical). 

What does it take and how much will it cost?

There are two basic ways to effect backup: do it yourself, or pay to have it done for you. 

The easiest way to do it yourself is to install a tape backup drive on your PC. The drive will cost around $250 and tapes retail around $20 each. If you buy a popular-brand tape drive, it will probably come with Colorado backup software. This is super-easy to learn and requires very little effort to maintain a daily backup system. Newer versions of the Colorado software come with a pre-configured macro to run a daily backup on a weekly schedule: full backup on Monday, and incremental backups every day Tuesday through Thursday. This is a good system for the small business office and for individual PCs. 

If you use a peer-to-peer network such as Windows for Workgroups or Windows 95, you can backup files from all PCs on the network through a single PC with a tape drive installed. 

The best system is to have five tapes, one labelled for each day of the week. Set the macro to run sometime when no one in your office is around (say, at midnight or 5 am). On Monday, before you leave for the day, close all the Windows on your computer except for the Schedule and Program Manager windows, pop the "Monday" tape into the tape drive, and go home. When you come in on Tuesday morning, your computer will have made a complete copy of your hard drive. Before you leave Tuesday, do the same thing, only put in the "Tuesday" tape. Colorado will make an incremental backup. Once you get in the habit of popping a tape in every day before you leave, it will become second nature and you'll never even think about it. This is the best security you can have for the data on your hard drive. 

You can get by with two tapes if you have little data and don't often make software changes: one for full and one for incremental backups. The problem with this system is that you only change tapes twice a week, so it's not so much of a habit and you'll forget, or put it off ... and you don't have a current backup when you need one. 

Many cities now have remote backup services provided by local businesses. With remote backup, you install software on your PC and connect a modem to it. Periodically, the central backup computer will call your PC and download a backup copy. Prices vary widely, so ask around in your area. Be certain, however, that the service you sign up for includes full backups regularly, not just once a year, but at least quarterly, and preferably weekly or monthly. If you have a full backup once a year, and incremental backups weekly, and you crash your computer after 10 months, you may have to restore 41 separate backups! 

Remote backup is a good plan if you are the kind who forgets things easily, or if you use a lot of temporary help that cannot be depended on to put in the tape, or if you just don't want to think about it at all and prefer to have it handled for you. Cost wise, it's cheaper in the long run to do it yourself. It may cost more up front to buy the tape drive and tapes. 

Make sure it worked!

Obviously, a failed backup is worthless, or even worse than worthless because it got your hopes up! You should read the backup log whenever an error message is reported, to see whether it's an error you must correct. You should periodically restore a sample file or two just to make sure everything is actually working. I would restore a sample file from the first full and first incremental backup, and if all is well, do a sample restoration once a month or so. 

An extra precaution

Regardless of the backup method you choose, it's a good idea to make a complete backup yourself from time to time and store it somewhere else. I'm a worst-case-scenario kind of thinker, so I have made sure that if my office burns down, I can buy a new PC with insurance money and restore a complete backup of my old hard drive onto the new PC, using the extra backup tape I store at my sister's house! If you use a remote backup service, make a backup of your own, just to be safe, even if you have to do it on 47 floppy diskettes. Remember, better safe than sorry!