Data Security and Recovery

If you work with computers, you know it's just a matter of time before your hard drive begins to experience problems. It can start with a few data errors or the read/write heads on your hard drive can gouge the magnetic media and you'll experience a hard drive crash.

When you face a hard drive crash, you'll either be happy you just backed up your data or you'll start sweating when you realize that hundreds of hours of work have just been scratched out of existence.

How you'll face the future after a disaster depends on how you planned for the disaster before it occurred. Planning is crucial to anyone who depends on their computer for their livelihood.

Your data integrity plan should answer the following questions:

1. How often will you back up your data?
2. What data you will back up?
3. How and where will you store the backups?

So, take a few minutes to think through these questions. It could mean the difference between a mildly unpleasant day and a lost of sleepless nights.

Backup Frequency

How often you back up your data depends on several factors. Here are a few questions you should consider when planning the frequency of your backups:

• How do you feel about losing a day's worth of work? How about losing a week's or a month's worth of work? How much work would be lost if your hard drive crashed right now?
• How would you customer's fell about having their projects delayed by a week? How about a month?
• How must would your profits suffer if your hard drive crashed right now?

Once you have decided on a backup frequency, you should remember that backing up your data is just as important as creating it in the first place. Backing up you hard drive is not wasted time. It actually saves you from a lot of wasted time.

Selecting Data to Back Up

Of course you want a total backup of your hard drive. But, some things do not need to be backed up. For example, the operating system and most software does not need to be backed up. These items are normally available on disks that come with your computer or with software you purchased.

The important data to back up is that data that is part of your business. The scripts, programs, databases, customer lists, emails and so on that make your business work.

Many backup systems can provide several types of backups. One type of backup is the "full" backup that backs up all the data you specify. This backup normally takes the longest to perform and uses the most backup media. Another type of backup is an "incremental" backup. This type of backup only backs up the changes to your data from the last backup. This is faster and takes up less backup media.

To restore your data you would typically restore from the media that contained the last "full" backup. Then, restore each "incremental" backup since the "full" backup. This will have you up and running with only the data lost since the last incremental backup.

Storing Your Backup Media

Storing your backup media right next to your computer may not be a prudent approach to backup management. If a fire destroyed you computer, it surely would destroy your backups. This puts you in the same position as not having a backup at all.

Your backups should be stored in a location that is far enough away from your computer to be safe in case of fire. This may be in an unattached garage, in a fire proof safe, or with a neighbor. You may even use a safety deposit box at a bank.

A backup plan can save you from losing hundreds of hours of work. A good backup plan can also save you thousands of dollars you might pay to a data recovery company to retrieve as much information as can be restored from a damaged hard drive. In any case, the alternatives to a backup plan are costly.

Your backup plan will save you time, money, and emotional distress. So, start planning today.

We hope the following data security and data recovery resources will be helpful.

Data Security News

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