Author: Bender Smith
This is a question that MOST home computer users (Mac or PC) HAVE NOT asked themselves.
How do I backup my computer & What data do I need to backup?
In a business setting there are unlimited options that IT professionals have access to in order to backup up corporate data. Home users have many of those same options, but are completely unnecessary due to the amount of data that home users will be backing up.
When you backup a computer there are many different ways to do it and many files & folders that can be backed up. For this article we are only going to focus on the actually data files (word, excel, mp3’s, jpegs, etc.), and NOT everything else, such as the applications folder, the program files folder etc.
For a home user there is no need to backup everything on your entire hard drive. That will just take up too much time & get too expensive.
I suggest saving all of you data files to 1 spot, if you are a Microsoft Windows user, most software packages default saving your data to the My Documents folder. If you are a Mac user it defaults to only God knows where! Actually it usually defaults to the desktop).
Make a folder & name it something meaningful.
Call it something you will remember, like “Computer Backup” or “My Backup Files” or “Hey Stupid, Back Me Up!”
Next make sure you save all your important files to that folder. I repeat, put any data file in that folder that you work on and wish to save. You can default many of your files to save in that folder so you do not have to worry about clicking & dragging to the folder. If you are truly interested in getting FREE instructions on how to do that, visit one of my 2 sites listed in my bio and contact me through them. I will get back to you ASAP.
Once you have saved all your important files in that one folder, we have to decide how to physically move (copy) that folder off your existing computer hard drive. I have outlined 3 different ways this can be done, in no particular order of importance.
Your first option would be to purchase a USB Key (thumb drive etc, whatever you want to call it). These devices are an extremely cheap form of backup device. Purchase one at your local Best Buy, CompUSA, Radio Shack or online at Amazon. Bring it home, plug it in to your PC (or if you have a Mac, plug it in and pray the Mac recognizes it). The USB Key will be assigned a letter (ie E: ) in My Computer (Windows) or will show up as a mounted drive on the Mac. Open the USB Key up and copy and paste your “Computer Backup” folder to the drive. Once it is done copying, remove it from the computer and you have a safe data backup off of your existing computer hard drive.
Another computer backup idea would be to purchase an external hard drive (fire wire or USB cable) and plug that into your computer. You will need to treat the external hard drive just like the USB Key solution. The only difference is that there is more space available on the external hard drive than the USB Key. You can also purchase an internal hard drive and have it installed or if you are just purchasing a new computer, you can add one for a small amount of money. This will be treated just like your original hard drive, it will have a letter assigned to it (ie C or D) or it will be mounted to your desktop (Macs). The only problem is if your computer crashes you will need to contact an IT Professional or someone who can access that hard drive & reconstruct your OS.
The third idea for a computer backup solution would be to simply burn the data to a CD or DVD. This solution may take a little longer, depending on how much data you are backing up at once. It may also turn out to be the most expensive, of course depending on how many times you backup per month, week, etc.
There are many ways to perform a backup of your data on your home computer. I have outlined the 3 easiest & least expensive solutions for you to try.
You would be surprised how many people have actually never thought of backing up their data on their home computer. While working in the private business sector, supporting residential & commercial clients, I encountered 2 -3 customers per week who lost important files due to not having a proper computer backup plan in place.
Take action now! Save yourself heartache & frustration. Follow one of these three solutions TODAY! If you have more questions please visit one of my sites below or shoot me an email.
Good Luck.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bender_Smith
Showing posts with label data backup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label data backup. Show all posts
Sunday, 13 July 2008
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Is Remote, Online Data Storage Really Necessary?
Author: Andrew Stratton
The need for reliable, authentic data backup is real -- but the "why" of choices made is often hopelessly obscured for business owners by endless truckloads of technical jargon understood only by the geeks.
Most business owners today would wind up in "rubber rooms" in a hurry were it not for their Information Technology (IT) people. How many CEOs out there actually speak or understand "Techie" or the reasons why they need what IT says they need?
No one's challenging the importance or value of a good IT Department in today's business world - but top management really should understand at least the basic reasons IT makes the choices and decisions it makes. So, in plain English, here's why online, offsite data storage should be given serious thought.
Consider how crippling (and painful) would it be if your business suddenly lost all its files. Customer data ... customer orders ... your own business data.... Just imagining what it would be like is enough to send most business owners into a panic - and rightfully so. Yet many (if not most) businesses put their commercial lives at risk online every single day -- and aren't even aware of doing so.
In a business sense, if in no other, ignorance most definitely is not bliss. With the explosion of commerce on the internet, competition is fiercer than it has been ever before in history. In today's business climate, it's absolutely essential that your online business operate without fail day and night, every day of the year -- because if error messages or downed servers or other glitches greet potential customers when they access your site, your many competitors are just a simple mouse-click away, ready and eager to snatch them out of your hands.
Your every day, online dealings with customers are conducted with the help of databases on your own servers, on your own premises, supplying relevant customer and business information. Any significant or recurring glitch in this service instantaneously translates to poor customer relations, loss of business and a sullied business reputation. Any way you look at it, loss or corruption of customer data is going to cost your business time and money - whether it's in lost or inaccurate sales or in server downtime to find and fix the errors.
Remote, offsite backup essentially functions in the same way regular tape backups do - but with one major - and important - difference. Instead of sending backups to a tape or to another drive attached to your on-site server, data is sent to another computer safely off-site. No one has to remember to do it, either; it's automatically done, each and every day.
Even if you already utilize a tape backup system, incorporating a remote backup system as well makes sound business sense. Critical files (such as customer contacts, billing data, client databases, etc.) can be kept on the remote backup system. Your tape system then can be used to create a full backup of the system just once a month or so. Doing this, your on-site tapes will last longer - and the drive will require less maintenance - while the remote backup gives you quick and easy retrieval of critical files and databases as needed.
With online backup, smooth functioning of online transactions supplying crucial customer and business information is assured. A good remote online backup service keeps your data safe and secure in remote locations and allows you to access, update, and recover important files and documents without your business suffering downtime or lost customers.
You can never be too prepared when disaster strikes. Protect yourself from data loss with online backup from Global Data Vault. Avoid downtime, revenue loss and angry customers with remote backup services from Global Data Vault.http://www.globaldatavault.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Stratton
The need for reliable, authentic data backup is real -- but the "why" of choices made is often hopelessly obscured for business owners by endless truckloads of technical jargon understood only by the geeks.
Most business owners today would wind up in "rubber rooms" in a hurry were it not for their Information Technology (IT) people. How many CEOs out there actually speak or understand "Techie" or the reasons why they need what IT says they need?
No one's challenging the importance or value of a good IT Department in today's business world - but top management really should understand at least the basic reasons IT makes the choices and decisions it makes. So, in plain English, here's why online, offsite data storage should be given serious thought.
Consider how crippling (and painful) would it be if your business suddenly lost all its files. Customer data ... customer orders ... your own business data.... Just imagining what it would be like is enough to send most business owners into a panic - and rightfully so. Yet many (if not most) businesses put their commercial lives at risk online every single day -- and aren't even aware of doing so.
In a business sense, if in no other, ignorance most definitely is not bliss. With the explosion of commerce on the internet, competition is fiercer than it has been ever before in history. In today's business climate, it's absolutely essential that your online business operate without fail day and night, every day of the year -- because if error messages or downed servers or other glitches greet potential customers when they access your site, your many competitors are just a simple mouse-click away, ready and eager to snatch them out of your hands.
Your every day, online dealings with customers are conducted with the help of databases on your own servers, on your own premises, supplying relevant customer and business information. Any significant or recurring glitch in this service instantaneously translates to poor customer relations, loss of business and a sullied business reputation. Any way you look at it, loss or corruption of customer data is going to cost your business time and money - whether it's in lost or inaccurate sales or in server downtime to find and fix the errors.
Remote, offsite backup essentially functions in the same way regular tape backups do - but with one major - and important - difference. Instead of sending backups to a tape or to another drive attached to your on-site server, data is sent to another computer safely off-site. No one has to remember to do it, either; it's automatically done, each and every day.
Even if you already utilize a tape backup system, incorporating a remote backup system as well makes sound business sense. Critical files (such as customer contacts, billing data, client databases, etc.) can be kept on the remote backup system. Your tape system then can be used to create a full backup of the system just once a month or so. Doing this, your on-site tapes will last longer - and the drive will require less maintenance - while the remote backup gives you quick and easy retrieval of critical files and databases as needed.
With online backup, smooth functioning of online transactions supplying crucial customer and business information is assured. A good remote online backup service keeps your data safe and secure in remote locations and allows you to access, update, and recover important files and documents without your business suffering downtime or lost customers.
You can never be too prepared when disaster strikes. Protect yourself from data loss with online backup from Global Data Vault. Avoid downtime, revenue loss and angry customers with remote backup services from Global Data Vault.http://www.globaldatavault.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Stratton
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
Know your Options for an Offsite Data Backup
Author: Roland Jefferson
Offsite data backups include storage, such as compact discs and DVD’s, memory cards, and flash memory devices including magnetic tapes, floppy discs, USB drives and zip discs. Consumers and businesses have been using these options as offsite data backup for years because they are proven methods for keeping data safe and recoverable.
Although these storages can provide regular computer users with a sufficient means of storing data, hardcore computer workers and large businesses should consider an offsite data backup solution. An offsite solution can provide your data a higher level of security and a reliable storage for all of your materials in the event that uncontrollable incidents such as fire, theft or hard drive failures occur.
When you choose an offsite data backup solution, a third party that specializes in commercial data protection will manage and store all of the data that you provide. Sending data electronically, or by using your computer, involves a process known as “electronic vaulting” or “e-vaulting”.
An offsite data backup provider allows users to back up easily and automatically each day, week or month by connecting to a data center or software. Once connected, you can upload the changed data created during the day, week or entire month (depending on your backup preferences). All of the data you upload will then be encrypted using the industry’s standard protocol, and sent over to the provider’s physically separate data center.
How to Choose an Offsite Data Backup Provider
Although there are hundreds of companies advertising their offsite data backup services, only a few major companies actually provide these services. The hundreds of other companies are usually service providers or resellers of the major companies.The main offsite data backup vendors are divided into two categories – the “product-only” companies and the “service provider” companies. If you know how to back up data and simply need a program to do it easily, a product-only offsite company (such as Avamar and Asigra) will provide you with their product and an option to subscribe with a service provider that will back up data for you.On the other hand, if you want a hassle-free offsite data backup solution, then look for service providers, such as Connected, LiveVault or Evault. These companies provide clients with two options – to subscribe with their services where they will host the vault, or buy their stand-alone product where you will host the vault yourself.
Most experts recommend in starting with a service provider before buying a stand-alone product. However, your choice will depend on largely on how well a specific program or service can meet your personal or business requirements.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/know-your-options-for-an-offsite-data-backup-193959.html
Offsite data backups include storage, such as compact discs and DVD’s, memory cards, and flash memory devices including magnetic tapes, floppy discs, USB drives and zip discs. Consumers and businesses have been using these options as offsite data backup for years because they are proven methods for keeping data safe and recoverable.
Although these storages can provide regular computer users with a sufficient means of storing data, hardcore computer workers and large businesses should consider an offsite data backup solution. An offsite solution can provide your data a higher level of security and a reliable storage for all of your materials in the event that uncontrollable incidents such as fire, theft or hard drive failures occur.
When you choose an offsite data backup solution, a third party that specializes in commercial data protection will manage and store all of the data that you provide. Sending data electronically, or by using your computer, involves a process known as “electronic vaulting” or “e-vaulting”.
An offsite data backup provider allows users to back up easily and automatically each day, week or month by connecting to a data center or software. Once connected, you can upload the changed data created during the day, week or entire month (depending on your backup preferences). All of the data you upload will then be encrypted using the industry’s standard protocol, and sent over to the provider’s physically separate data center.
How to Choose an Offsite Data Backup Provider
Although there are hundreds of companies advertising their offsite data backup services, only a few major companies actually provide these services. The hundreds of other companies are usually service providers or resellers of the major companies.The main offsite data backup vendors are divided into two categories – the “product-only” companies and the “service provider” companies. If you know how to back up data and simply need a program to do it easily, a product-only offsite company (such as Avamar and Asigra) will provide you with their product and an option to subscribe with a service provider that will back up data for you.On the other hand, if you want a hassle-free offsite data backup solution, then look for service providers, such as Connected, LiveVault or Evault. These companies provide clients with two options – to subscribe with their services where they will host the vault, or buy their stand-alone product where you will host the vault yourself.
Most experts recommend in starting with a service provider before buying a stand-alone product. However, your choice will depend on largely on how well a specific program or service can meet your personal or business requirements.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/know-your-options-for-an-offsite-data-backup-193959.html
Monday, 16 June 2008
Offsite Backup Services - How Long Will It Take?
Author: Sig Kappel
When backing up your data through the internet using an offsite backup service, your time of transfer is going to be dependent on the following two major factors: Your Upload rate, as provided by your internet service provider and the amount of data to be transferred.
When it comes to the internet connection speed, you should realize that most home and business do not have the "advertised" rate of service. For example, at the office and at home we use a local cable company's high speed connection that is advertised at 5Mb/s downstream and 1Mb/s up stream. In reality we average about 1.62Mb/sec downstream and 256kb/s upstream.
What about the amount of data to backup. I suggest to anyone that uses an offsite backup service to only backup data that has real value. This is the stuff that you cannot afford to lose, and that fairly easy to identify; just ask the question "what data would seriously impact my business if I were to lose it?" this should bring up some serious considerations.
Now that you identified the data of value, it's time to back it up. Great, with your internet provider this should only take an ETERNITY! Not to worry, yes the initial back-up transfer time can take a reasonable amount of time, but to reduce time spent on transfer most backup providers software will compress your data (not to mention encrypting for security) before sending; that helps.
Here's the real good news, the software used to do the backups after the initial backup session will be real quick, because the data transferred will only be what has changed. This makes the daily backup only a small fraction of the full backup.
When it comes to the time spent on backing up it's worth that investment, besides your computer is doing the work, go relax your data is being secured.
Sig Kappel is a Computer Engineering Technologist and Lead architect of the JetBack Offsite Backup Service You'll find more information on Jetback Offsite Backup Services at http://www.jetback.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sig_Kappel
When backing up your data through the internet using an offsite backup service, your time of transfer is going to be dependent on the following two major factors: Your Upload rate, as provided by your internet service provider and the amount of data to be transferred.
When it comes to the internet connection speed, you should realize that most home and business do not have the "advertised" rate of service. For example, at the office and at home we use a local cable company's high speed connection that is advertised at 5Mb/s downstream and 1Mb/s up stream. In reality we average about 1.62Mb/sec downstream and 256kb/s upstream.
What about the amount of data to backup. I suggest to anyone that uses an offsite backup service to only backup data that has real value. This is the stuff that you cannot afford to lose, and that fairly easy to identify; just ask the question "what data would seriously impact my business if I were to lose it?" this should bring up some serious considerations.
Now that you identified the data of value, it's time to back it up. Great, with your internet provider this should only take an ETERNITY! Not to worry, yes the initial back-up transfer time can take a reasonable amount of time, but to reduce time spent on transfer most backup providers software will compress your data (not to mention encrypting for security) before sending; that helps.
Here's the real good news, the software used to do the backups after the initial backup session will be real quick, because the data transferred will only be what has changed. This makes the daily backup only a small fraction of the full backup.
When it comes to the time spent on backing up it's worth that investment, besides your computer is doing the work, go relax your data is being secured.
Sig Kappel is a Computer Engineering Technologist and Lead architect of the JetBack Offsite Backup Service You'll find more information on Jetback Offsite Backup Services at http://www.jetback.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sig_Kappel
Saturday, 7 June 2008
Offsite Backup Software
Author: Eddie Tobey
With increasing risks that the data on the computers face, backing up data is not just an option, but also a necessity which should be given utmost priority. Earlier it was considered adequate if data was backed up and stored at a safe place at the same location close to the original data. This was known as onsite backup. Though this took care of most issues relating to loss of data, there were still a few things to contend with. In an increasingly volatile world, what if the data that is kept on site, gets damaged somehow? It was from these thoughts that offsite backing up of data emerged.
There are mainly two ways of offsite backing up of data. First is the conventional means, where the data is written either every day or every week, and physically carried to the offsite storage location, and preserved there. The software used for such backup depends on the method of backup. CD or DVD drives come with their own backup software that is installed on the computer to allow it to burn CDs and DVDs. The setup for tape drives includes the software as well.
However of late, there is a new type of offsite backup system that is gaining prominence, because it does away with a lot of the discrepancy of the traditional backup system. For example, by keeping a tape or a CD/DVD offsite, the data stored is not current. It's either a week old or a day old, depending upon the data storage cycle. Thus in case of loss of data, the data that is retrieved, is a week or a day old.
There are many companies today who will keep data backed up and securely stored in a data center away from the office. The backup offsite software programs are installed into the computer network of the company. Thus whenever a user saves any file, these programs make a file which is then sent to a secure, and predetermined, offsite backup location. Being fully automatic, such software causes minimum interference to the work.
Backup Software provides detailed information on Backup Software, CD ROM Backup Software, Free Backup Software, Computer Backup Software and more. Backup Software is affiliated with Network Status Monitoring Software.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eddie_Tobey
With increasing risks that the data on the computers face, backing up data is not just an option, but also a necessity which should be given utmost priority. Earlier it was considered adequate if data was backed up and stored at a safe place at the same location close to the original data. This was known as onsite backup. Though this took care of most issues relating to loss of data, there were still a few things to contend with. In an increasingly volatile world, what if the data that is kept on site, gets damaged somehow? It was from these thoughts that offsite backing up of data emerged.
There are mainly two ways of offsite backing up of data. First is the conventional means, where the data is written either every day or every week, and physically carried to the offsite storage location, and preserved there. The software used for such backup depends on the method of backup. CD or DVD drives come with their own backup software that is installed on the computer to allow it to burn CDs and DVDs. The setup for tape drives includes the software as well.
However of late, there is a new type of offsite backup system that is gaining prominence, because it does away with a lot of the discrepancy of the traditional backup system. For example, by keeping a tape or a CD/DVD offsite, the data stored is not current. It's either a week old or a day old, depending upon the data storage cycle. Thus in case of loss of data, the data that is retrieved, is a week or a day old.
There are many companies today who will keep data backed up and securely stored in a data center away from the office. The backup offsite software programs are installed into the computer network of the company. Thus whenever a user saves any file, these programs make a file which is then sent to a secure, and predetermined, offsite backup location. Being fully automatic, such software causes minimum interference to the work.
Backup Software provides detailed information on Backup Software, CD ROM Backup Software, Free Backup Software, Computer Backup Software and more. Backup Software is affiliated with Network Status Monitoring Software.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eddie_Tobey
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