So I get a call from a client today – all of his data is gone. He has no clue what happened. He was cleaning up his computer “to make it go faster” (as I am sure many of you have, PLEASE have someone who knows what they are doing complete this task as you can end up doing more damage than good to your computer ) and “I may have accidentally deleted the my documents folder”. He is in full blown panic mode. All of his spreadsheets and tools to help him manage his daily business were in that folder. I log onto his computer (remote access via logmein) and sure enough – it’s gone. This is where I become the hero. Unbeknownst to him I had previously installed Mozy , an online backup system, on his computer to back up this folder. I am a HERO. In just a couple of hours all of his important files are restored!
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There are many options out there to backup your files. Mozy offers 2GB of free space to anyone and you can increase the amount of free space you get by referring other people via a special link or by giving them your referral code. If you have a large amount of data to back up you can get unlimited backup space for $4.95/mth. Another popular online backup option is Carbonite which also has unlimited at $54.95/yr. Both options are similar so you will just have to check them both out to see which better fits your needs. After the initial setup they both backup based on the schedule and files you choose provided you are connected to the Internet during the entire backup process. The initial backup can take more than a week but depending on the size of data to be backed up, subsequent backups can take a few minutes to a few hours.
If you are one of those people that does not feel secure sending your information into cyberspace (my husband), you can opt for a desktop backup drive which is essentially an external hard drive connected to your computer via a usb port and comes with software to set up an automatic backup of your hard drive with your preferences – you can choose to backup your entire computer or just select files. The only stipulation here is that you choose a backup drive that is large enough to accommodate all of your current and future back up needs. I would recommend at least twice the size of your current hard drive. These drives can be purchased online or at any office supply store as well as many other stores that sell computers. The only downfall is obvious…this drive generally sits on your desk right next to your computer. So… if something happens to your computer (fire, theft, etc) chances are it is going to happen to your backup drive as well. One way around this is to purchase two (you can get a 500GB for under $100 and smaller drives for less) and rotate them, always keeping one off site.
If you only have a few folders or files to backup you can copy them to a a portable flash or “thumb” drive. These range in sizes from 128mb to 32GB or more and range in price from $5 – over $200. The sky is the limit on what you can do with these things. You can have several and each can hold specific types of data backups (Music, pictures, documents) – the nice thing about these is, as the are titled, they are portable. These types of devices also make it very easy to share your documents and files with other people or computers.
If you really want to go old school you can still purchase programs that will copy your files to a CD or DVD, OR complete the process manually this can be very tedious and time consuming, but it works nonetheless.
Whatever your backup method/device preference is I urge you to BACKUP! Also, on a semi-regular basis, check your backed up files to make sure they are actually being backed up – nothing worse than THINKING you have a backup in place when it is not working properly! You may never need to revert to your backed up files but if you ever do, even for just one critical file, you will be glad you had it.
***Added note since I have received a few emails about “liability”. I did tell the OWNER of the company that I had installed the backups on the office computers (I would never place software or any other program on a clients computer without permission), it was the general manager that lost the data and was unaware.
