Backup your PC
Backups are essential. We have already talked about backups when we looked at storage, we will cover that now in more detail here. A backup in its simplest form is a copy of some or all of your data that is in a separate place from your computer. In the beginning of the personal computer era the backup had to be on floppy discs 8″ then 5.25” then 3.5″ floppy discs were used but the biggest capacity of these was 1.44MB and with the capacity of most personal computers being 60GB another medium had to be found. The best would be to backup to magnetic tape. This means the purchase of a tape drive that is linked to your computer either by firewire, USB or internally within your desktop. Other options are DVD or CD R/W discs with occasional copies to non-rewritable discs.
The tape is produced and all the data and programs can be stored on one tape so that a complete record of the contents of the computer can be made. Often these tape backups are incremental. For an incremental backup a complete copy of the machine is made (let’s say on a Saturday) then every day any files that have been changed are copied to separate tapes (Sunday through Friday) and finally another complete backup is made on the next Saturday. This may seem like overkill but for a business with a high turnover of files being changed it is essential. A business would typically keep a cycle of 3 weeks of the incremental backups and several months of the complete backups. Then a complete copy of the data and programs can be produced at any time as required by auditors.
The backup strategy to a DVD or CD R/W is very simple. Simply copy all files from the user documents onto the DVD or CD. The result will be that there are copies available for all the files in the store command. Care must be taken to backup the e-mails and any other messages on the system so they can be recovered easily. The weak link in this type of system is that the CD and DVD discs can deteriorate over time so care must be taken not to scratch them or put them in a place affected by excess heat or sunlight. Again, as with the tape, a cycle of discs must be used, this means that the backups are not taken relying on one disc. If any disc shows problems in writing or verifying then replace the disc. It is cheaper to replace a disc than to replace the data that you lose.
Store the tapes or discs in a place remote from the computer. This may not seem feasible but you cannot afford to lose both the computer and its backups. In a large business where they are using tapes to store all the changed information they may send the newest backup tapes to their bank for safekeeping. Some businesses take 2 backups, and send one to the bank and another they keep themselves. So they have a backup for immediate use and a second backup for “disaster recovery”. These days the very term “disaster recovery” will reveal a big business where there a many mainframe, and minicomputers together with personal computers and their LAN connections on standby a specific locations ready for a disaster to strike and then the computers are rolled in usually in a prefabricated building or in the trailer of a truck. For a smaller business then keeping the discs from the office computer at home and the home computer in the office may be enough. You may choose to rely on a fireproof safe. If you do choose a fireproof safe then take careful note of the manufacturers instructions. One company where I worked had a new manager of the computer center and he insisted that the doors of the “fireproof” safe were always kept closed until he realized that the safe’s fireproofing was so old that it was no longer any guarantee of the fireproofing anyway.
However you choose to store your backups make an informed choice and do not leave anything to chance as the chance is that you will lose your computer and the backups without careful planning.
