Everything you need to know to get started.

Your data is king. Everything else is replaceable.

Hard drive died? No problem. Just buy a new one. Laptop stolen? No worries. We can get you up and running in no time.

But loose your data and we’ve got a problem. Think of all those things on your computer you can’t live without. Family photos, emails, financials? What are they worth to you? $1000? $5000? For many people, their data is priceless.

The bottom line is this: Back it up! And start doing it today, because if you haven’t yet lost your data yet, you most certainly will.

So what can the average Joe do?

Bootstrap it.
If you’re on a budget or unsure when you can actually get around to setting up a real backup solution, just use one of the free online email services to warehouse your data. Most offer 2GB free with options for more space. Got something important and don’t want to loose it? Email a copy to your Gmail account. It’s as simple as that.

Consider online storage.
I confess. I am not a big fan of online storage services. For me, my data is like my kid. I don’t want it (him) in the hands of strangers. I prefer to manage my data myself. It’s safer. However, many people aren’t so worried about third party companies taking care of their data. For them, I recommend Mozy (www.mozy.com). It costs about $50 per year and it works well. You may also want to check out Carbonite (www.carbonite.com).

External hard drives are ideal.
They are cheap and easy to use. Buy 2 of them, so you can keep one complete and current backup someplace safe. Make sure the external drives you buy are at least the same size as the drive you want to backup.

Automate it.
What’s the weakest link when it comes to computer security and data integrity? The human. Some vendors (Maxtor) offer ‘one touch’ external backups and there are keychain drives (SanDisk Ultra Backup) which will backup everything when connected. But the best backups are engineered to happen continuously and automatically. The last thing you want is to have to remember to backup. Make sure your solution does it for you. Checkout Acronis: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Be sure you’re getting the right stuff.
We’ve seen cases where the person was diligent about backing up but was backing up the wrong data! And other cases where he/she was backing up the right data but the backed up data was corrupted and consequently useless. Lesson: Make sure you’re backing up the right data AND make sure that data is actually recoverable. You should double check these things every month or so.

Find a safe place.
Don’t make the mistake of keeping all your backups in the same place. We had one dental office come to us. They were diligent about backing up, but when their office burned to the ground, they lost everything, including the good backups. Always keep a current copy somewhere away from your computer. I like my bank’s safe deposit box. That’s gotta be one of the safest places in the world.

Got questions? Give us a call. We’re here to help.