We have all been there at one time or another.  The hard drive crashes, your laptop or tablet is stolen, or the newest version of the project you have been working on all day has not saved the updates.  At these critical moments in life, having a backup of your data would be a lifesaver.  No one ever wants to lose the presentation slides, the contract proposal or the 50 page paper they slaved over, but if your data (files and documents) are not backed up this could happen to you or your business.  Let’s examine some strategies that will help you and your business in the event of a technology meltdown, theft or loss.
Determine what needs to be backed up– There are probably hundreds of items on your hard drive, right? Â Prioritize them and determine which files will need to be backed up to keep things running smoothly. Â Some may need to be backed up daily while others may only need it occasionally. For example, word processing files, spreadsheets, and similar documents that are updated constantly, you may want to update daily. Â Browser favorites like email, visual media, and calendar entries may also need daily backup. Â Hibernation files and browser cache, on the other hand, may not need to be updated or backed up often.
Determine the Location of backup you need – There are several types to choose from including:
- Local backup could include backing up critical files on zip drives, external hard drives, or USB Flash drives. These backups are fast and easily accessible. Â A distinct disadvantage is that the media can be expensive and susceptible to physical failure.
- Cloud Backup – This type of backup is stored online and can be accessed from anywhere and often by multiple computers. The data is often stored in a secure online location that is accessible with a password you create. Backups can also occur in real time. Depending on the type and scope of the backup needed will determine the cost.
Determine the Type of backup you need –
- Full Backup – The most basic and complete type of backup operation is a full backup. As the name implies, this type of backup makes a copy of all data to another set of media, which can be tape, disk or a DVD or CD. The primary advantage to performing a full backup during every operation is that a complete copy of all data is available with a single set of media.
- Incremental Backup – An incremental backup operation will result in copying only the data that has changed since the last backup operation of any type.
- Differential Backup – A differential backup operation is similar to an incremental the first time it is performed, in that it will copy all data changed from the previous backup. However, each time it is run afterwards, it will continue to copy all data changed since the previous full backup. (Source: Tech Target)
Categorised in: data management