If you’ve ever been in a situation in where you’ve been about to finish an important business project only to have your computer unexpectedly crash, you’ll know how frustrating losing your data can be.
Imagine losing all your important company files permanently: everything from business files, to client contact information, to tax returns. Although it’s natural for most of us to prefer to stick our heads in the sand in hopes that it will never happen to us, the cold hard reality is that it could.
Computers don’t care that the project you’re working on will create your biggest invoice to date, or that you’re running on a skeleton staff due to the holidays. It might sound pessimistic, but in business – and particularly when it comes to technology – it always pays to be prepared for the worst.
Especially as computers continue to become the principle medium through which many people carry out their business, provide their services, and conduct important transactions.
You can reinstall software programs if you need to, but recovering the details of transactions or business correspondence is impossible if those files are lost or damaged beyond repair.
Do I really need to back up all my data?
In short, you should back up all files that could threaten your business productivity in the event your computer spontaneously decides to give up the ghost.
Although which files you need to backup will vary slightly between businesses, those files will probably include information relating to banking or other financial transactions, your email contact list, images, logos and promotional material, confidential business information, and contracts.
I admit it: I’ve never backed up my files. Where do I start?
With a good range of backup software options and services currently available, it has never been easier or faster to ensure your files are safe and secure.
Data backup does not mean printing out your important information to shove into the office filing draw and then forget about. What if there’s a fire? Or a flood? Or you inexplicably have mutant mice takeover the office and tear up those print outs to create their nests?
For adequate data protection you need to establish a data backup system that allows you to archive business data regularly, create data backups on reliable media; and keep updated data backups in a secure, off-site location.
Archive important business data
This is more than just good housekeeping: archiving your data will ensure your business’ survival when disaster does strike. After you decide what of your data is crucial and needs to be archived it’s simply a matter of installing and using a backup software program to archive this data on a regular basis. Look for backup software that zips and encrypts files to save disk space and increase data security, and when in doubt book in for a session with a data recovery specialist to walk you through the basics and get your started.
Create physical data backups
They may seem painstaking at first, but physical data backups are necessary to protect you against the possibility of computer failure or damage. You should create physical data backups around once a week, depending on the amount of new data your business generates daily.
Using CD-Roms as data backups is popular as blank CDs are inexpensive, and copying data onto CDs is easy. However, this is the most unreliable method because CDs have a limited shelf life. If you are going to use CDs be sure to make multiple copies over time to replace your old ones.
For small businesses, buying and using an external hard drive for data backups is a good option because they are reasonably affordable and have a much lower failure rate than that of backup media such as CDs. They’re also easy to use, and in many cases all you have to do is plug the hard drive into your computer’s USB port.
Off-site data backup
Investing time and energy into a regular data backup schedule won’t help if all your data backup copies are in one place and that place is struck by disaster. It’s a good idea to store copies of your backups off-site if your business data is to be truly secure.
You could invest in a bank security box, or if you own a small business you can even keep your backup files in a secure place at home.
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