If you do back up, would you be able to
restore you files to another computer? Have
you actually TRIED to do this? This
is the only proof that your backups work.
If your hard drive crashed today and you got a
replacement drive, would you be able to re-install all of your programs and data
easily? Do you have all of the
disks and license keys in one place? How
much lost work time would it cost to put it all back together?
Would you ever get it all back?
Would a fire in your office destroy your electronic data? Sure! It can destroy a server and all of the data on it. Yes, there are companies that specialize in data recovery from hard drives that have been in fires, but those services are VERY EXPENSIVE. Your backup is your insurance policy. You should consider storing one of your backups off-site. Some people take their backup media home with them. Others even sleep with it under their pillow. Seriously, if you have nothing else, you should take your last monthly backup off-site.
Fire-safe storage boxes are not appropriate for storing electronic media. Sure, they keep papers from burning up, but they do not keep computer disks and tapes from melting.
A full backup copies all of the files in the requested directories. This is normally how a backup tape is started. If you have sufficient backup space, doing a full backup each time is preferred since it is easier to restore from. Only the most recent full backup needs to be restored.
A differential backup backs up all files that have changed since the last full backup. This can significantly reduce the size of the backup and can allow for multiple days or weeks on a single backup tape. Restoring with differential backups requires only the most recent full backup and most recent differential backup.
Incremental backups back up all files since the last incremental backup or full backup. These are the smallest in size and should only be used if absolutely necessary. Doing a complete restore with incremental backups requires restoring EVERY backup.
You should have more than one tape or disk to back up your data. If you only have one disk, each time that you're backing up, you're overwriting the last good backup. If something happens WHILE YOU'RE BACKING UP, you will lose everything.
Not all problems are immediately apparent. If you back up on to one tape every week, you only have a week to notice that some files are missing or corrupted. If something is corrupted or lost and you figure it out a couple of weeks later, your backup doesn't have it anymore.
A common tape rotation is six weeks. That means you need six tapes or disks or sets of media. That gives you a month and a half to figure out that a file is corrupted or missing and you can still get it from your backup media.
Often, many organizations also back up files at the end of the quarter or end of the year and put them on a more permanent storage medium like a writeable CD. If you don't have a CD-R drive, we can assist you in pressing that data to CD. This is done especially at the end of the fiscal year with the accounting software. That way, you have a good backup of the end-of-year for your accountant.
Every technology has its own pluses and minuses.
Tape drives can offer the best speed and overall volume. Most tape drives come with their own software, but Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, also has a backup program that can be used with most tape drives. Tapes can be deceiving, though. If you have an automatic routine and put a tape in every day or every week, but never check to make sure that the tape drive is working properly, then you can be lulled into a sense of security, when in actuality, you have none. Tape backups require periodic attention to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to.
ZIP Drives (100 MB and 250 MB versions) and Jazz Drives (1 GB) are popular, but their storage capacity is usually limited. If you have a 40 GB hard drive that is mostly full, that could take 10 or 20 Jazz disks or 80 ZIP disks to back up completely. That's for each full backup. However, you can use this technology if all you want to back up is the important data files on a single stand-alone computer.
CD-RW (Re-writable CD's) can also be used. They have a capacity of about 650 MB, so they are slightly smaller than a Jazz disc. You can also use a CD-R (write once CD) for backing up critical data permanently. CD-R disks are very inexpensive and can be found on sale frequently. We recommend using CD-R's for backing up end-of-year financial data, and storing important files off-site for long-term safe keeping.
DVD-RW can be used for larger backups. DVD-RW drives are more expensive than CD-RW drives, but the capacity is much larger. In using a CD-RW or DVD-RW drive, usually special software needs to be purchased.
We can create a manual system restoration
guide that includes all of your Operating System and application disks, their
license keys (those wonderful strings of letters and numbers that are needed to
re-install the programs), and a step-by-step process for reinstalling your
software after a catastrophic loss.
For larger organizations, we also have automated backup systems that not only back up your critical servers, but also EVERY SINGLE COMPUTER in your organization. These backups can be restored to a computer in as little as 15 minutes.