Over the weekend a customer rang for assistance with their computer. They were in the process of migrating to a MAC. The company doing the migration somehow corrupted the data on the old machine. Luckily they didn’t actually need any help from me. They were able to use a partial backup on a USB drive taken just before handing over the old machine to the migration company.

Nowadays almost every business is dependent upon the office computer. Everyone agrees the concept of backing up the computer(s) is sensible. But many home and small businesses rarely perform it on a regular basis. Sometimes it is overlooked completely. Should the unthinkable happen and you don’t have a recent backup, you will be forced to expend considerable time and effort trying to recreate the status quo. Some will find it impossible.

To reduce the risk you need a strategy that is effective and achievable. It must be something you can work with but with a low impact on your time. Otherwise it is too easy to “forget” backing up.

So what is a realistic backup regime? This is not our area of expertise and the choice of hardware and software combinations are too great to list in this type of post. Talk to whoever sold you the hardware and get their advice.

When planning, consider how much data you generate and how hard it would be to recover it.

The 2 most likely situations where information becomes unusable are

• hardware failure; and
• computer is lost/stolen/destroyed.

Multiple backup devices and an off-site storage are needed just in case the burglar takes your computer AND your backup device or the office burns down. Off-site storage doesn’t have to be fancy. A shelf in the garage at home will do the job.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter what type of backup you take - full system or selected files and directories. Anything is better than nothing. And just as important is to TEST THE INTEGRITY OF THE BACKUP. Make sure you have the files you think you have!

Author: Andy Griffiths