I'm often amazed by the lack of backups / disaster recovery that I see at businesses large and small that we deal with.

so here's a challenge....

pretend your PC has been stolen. now see how long it takes to start with a clean Windows install (or other operating system that you use) and get completely back up and running with all your software installed and all your business data set up again and without any data loss.

if you are back up and running in no time, congratulations !

if not, you might want to give some thought to backups.

you can get a 500Gb external disk these days for less than £50 so there's no excuse for not having backups of all your data. and with Vista you can backup your entire PC at the click of a button.

also, just imagine that your office building has burned down overnight.... hopefully you didn't have your backups in there....

Tom

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Was discussing this the other day! Very important, should be written into procedure manuals as standard!

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Only required business applications running on the PC's and laptops are Outlook, and full office suite. Pop into PC world and be up and running in no time

No business data is stored on any PC or laptop, everything is accessed via the LAN, and our office servers.

File, Exchange and Intranet servers backed up daily to an extenal USB drive, and then a nightly incremental backup to an off site server. Slow, but runs through the night, so doesn't matter.

By the same token, as we live in a digital age, I now keep all personal data, photos, music etc on a home server, and that backs up incrementally to the office

Most of us have growing digital photo or video collections, do you back this priceless data up? No point having a stack of CDR's with your photo's on next to your PC if your house goes up in smoke while your on your hol's!!

How many times in my IT days did I see the collection of backup tapes sat next to the file server it was backing up

Very good point though Tom, and hopefully this thread makes a few people have a little think.

Put a Disaster Recovery plan in place now, and save yourself a lot of heart ache and possibly your business!

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Steve

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mulitple backups.
Local usb HD + duplicate to USB key (so I can carry them in my pocket) + cloud storage.

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you trust business data to a 3rd party Clown sorry Cloud outfit?

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Steve

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Yep.
They are called Google you may have heard of them. >;OP

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Steve

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Did the sprogg keep you awake again last night ya stroppy get.

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ohhhhhh somebodys over tired lmao.

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Yeah Steve at least with Stavros we know he is ALWAYS p*****d off!

Love ya really Stav's

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Sorry Stavros, couldn't resist it

But not to detract from the OP, backing up your data is a serious issue!

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Steve

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its ok everyone he has had his afternoon power nap he is back to his normal less grumpy self.

and I concur backup and then back it up again.

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It's relatively cheap to buy a 500gb external hard drive and something like Norton Ghost these days. No excuses for not backing up a complete Windows system. Some computers now come with an extra hard drive that just slots in so you can easily take it with you at the end of the day.

I was concerned about losing my data, so recently purchased a 2nd hard drive which cost less than £50 including Vat and backed up all my files and data.

Just got to hope i do not burn the house down.

Mark

Like Nick says, an external drive is peanuts.

If its business data (or irreplaceable personal data), regardless that you are in a home office, get it saved off site.

This can be leaving an external disk once a week with Frank 5 doors down, Mum, a mate, or online backups with a 3rd party.

In this day and age, with so many low cost solutions theres no excuse for data loss. IMHO

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Steve

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My laptop died last summer.

Time to check that the most critical files were safe and sound on USB stick: about thirty seconds.

Time to check that the more general backup (which included additionals of the files on the stick) on the server was okay: maybe ten minutes.

Time to buy a new laptop: including research and shopping around, about 24 hours, plus another 24 hours for delivery.

Time to get laptop out of the box, up and running, open up a couple of files to check they'd transferred across okay: couple of hours.

Time spent swearing at Vista: still going.............

Lol lmao :d

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There are lot of suggestion by all the members of forum about backups thanks for all the wise suggestion.

also worth mentioning that some of the online storage options are free or at least so cheap you don't have to think about it too much.

eg BT Digital Vault - 5Gb included with all BT Total Broadband Options

Dell - 2Gb Free - 5Gb £5.99

these options provide automatic backup facilities to backup just the files you have changed.

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I dont know the workings inside my magical box on the floor next to me

I dont have to many files to back up as my home pc is for home, the one i have at work, is mainly for invoices. and statements. i also print 2 copies, one for customers and one for there boxfile.

anyway, my mother has many many files on her comp as she teaches computers as her job. she has many different classes and writes her own work books.

so when buying her new pc, she had 2 extra hard drives fitted, one to back up, and another to back up weekly, its does it automaticly.

thats the jist of it i think from what i know, so when bying a pc, when its important for your daily work. you dont do the same.

sean

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I am using a server where my backup files are save

Thats the sort of thing that would make me nervous. She obviously has a lot of important data on the PC, but the backup is kept on the same PC

Think Disaster recovery. Or in simple terms, what if one day that PC was no longer there, how much of a problem would that be?

I think we are in an interesting period of history, we are becoming more and more dependant on computers, for home (digital photos, music) and business, but the tools we are using aren't really that far down the evolutionary tree.

I wonder if in the future, backing up the data will become part of the buying process. ie I need a computer, MS Office, and online back area etc. Maybe it will be home insurance companies that will become the guardians of our data, and you get xyz storage space when you take out your home policy...

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Steve

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TIP:
If you doe use a usb stick as part of your backup dont pull it out in a hurry as you will be sorry.

Trust me I just found out.

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