I once crashed a hard drive
on my computer. It was back in the old days (1990s). One day, I turned
off the computer in the middle of the hard drive running.
Poof the data was gone. All of it. The computer was dead.
But
I was lucky, I had set up a tape backup that ran every night, backing up
the changed files on my computer. It
stored 3.2 GBytes of data.
Recently, a client of mine, who had a setup to back up data to a second
hard drive on his computer, had a power failure and both hard drives failed. He
had to take the hard drives to an expert, who for over $300 (actually a very
good price), was able to recover most of the data. Additonally, it took
the my client about a week to get the data back, during which time, he wasn't
able to do the administrative tasks for his business.
You've just read about two real life incidents where a hard drive fails. I will
be talking here about:
1. Why people don't typically back up their data,
2.
The primary
risks of not backing up your computer, or
backing it up inadequately.
3.
Two backup possibilities and
4. Make some recommendations.
I'm sure you've heard a thousand times that it's
important to back up your data. Maybe
you want to do it, but it seems like the daily tedium of doing it is a pain and
that buying an automated system costs too much. Experts estimate that for
the individual, retrieving lost data costs average $700-$1000. Of course,
there is the additional cost of not being able to do business while all this
is happening.
More data
Well, things have changed. With pictures, audio and video, we
have a lot more data available to our computers. A lot more info to back
up. Using tapes, like I used to do, just takes too much time.
See a NY Times article on
backing up.
What to do?
Good news. Things are getting more automated and easier. I have two
recommendations.
Backup in your office.
External hard drives are coming down in price. A very powerful backup solution
can be had for under $200. This can be up to 500 Gigabytes (typically
10 times what you will normally use).
Advantages:
Backing up to an external drive has
some advantages: |
| 1. |
You control your information. You know where it is. Nobody else
has it. |
| 2. |
All your data is easily accessible and your hard drive can be used as part
of your computer system, allowing you to store and play those thousands of music
files you have, or see those videos you've downloaded, without filling up your
computer's main drive. |
Drawback:
However, external hard drives have one important drawback. They are near
your computer for easy access. Which means if there is an event in your house
(fire, flood, or theft), both the computer and the hard drive could
be lost. So, your data is still vulnerable.
Online backup.
Online backing up of data has been around for a while, but it typically has been
expensive ($10/mo for a few Gigabytes). Things are changing. See
the NY Times article.
What's missing in that article, is a company
that I believe gives you a better deal and is easy to use. A company
(Carbonite) has created an online automatic backup service that back's up unlimited
data for $5/month. That's
right $5/month for unlimited data. Here's a review:
http://www.carbonite.com/press/ap-2006-07-25.htm
More services are bound to be coming down the pike. Keep your eyes to the
internet for more info.
| Advantages: I
will focus on Carbonite only. |
| 1. |
Inexpensive $5/mo to protect all your data. |
| 2. |
Your data is protected in the event of an event at your computer's location. |
| Drawbacks: |
| 1. |
Carbonite's system doesn't allow for sharing of information (like photos). Other
systems do, but cost more. |
| 2. |
Initial set up and back up take a significant amount of time and computer
resources. Imagine all that data being sent over the Internet to their
data centers. Wow. |
Recommendation
If you can afford it, do both. Get an external hard drive and sign up for
a system like Carbonite.
If you need to choose, then if you can't afford a temporarily slow computer or
initial downtime, then get the hard drive.
If you can afford the temporarily slow computer and you need to start backing
up now, then go to Carbonite.
But, eventually GET BOTH. You'll be thankful you did.
Try it out. I liked it so much, I became
a reseller.
If carbonite interests you, you can go try
it free for two
weeks (without a credit card).
Or, if you want you can just go ahead and buy
it now.
And of course, if you want ANY help with this, or any other technology issues,
feel free to contact me.
Regards,
Steve
