Backup Misconceptions (Part 2)
A Good Backup System:
Last week we looked at some common misconceptions with backups. This week we look at how we can implement a good backup system?
There are thousands of articles out on how to implement a good backup system and I am sure they all give great advice. What is most important is that you implement something that you can manage without it stressing you out of giving you too much manual work to do (that you will eventually give up on). Best thing to do is to start somewhere, then read some more and improve what you are doing. Being in control is the most important thing.
Types of backups
If you have your data on discs and CD drives stop being available, then how do you access your data? Or, what if all your data is on BluRay discs and your BluRay drive fails? You won’t be able to access that data until you replace your BluRay drive.
A good rule of thumb here is to make sure that you have backups on different types of media – keep some backups on DVD’s and others on external hard drives or online with an online backup system (like Carbonite of course).
You are obviously not going to be able to do this for every single file that requires backing up. It is however important that you do it for the really critical files (e.g. legal documents, accounting records, important pics, home contents database for insurance use). Having all of this data available in a variety of forms is really in your best interest.
Location of backups
I have often written and even tweeted about the risk of relying purely on external drives. They are certainly worth while having and with the prices of TB drives falling to under $200, why wouldn’t you invest in one or even more than one (I have one at home). So sitting beside your computer is a nice little pile of external hard drives that hold all your backups. Now what happens if your home (or office) burns down or gets burgled? Not only are you very likely to lose your computer, you will also lose all of your backups as well.
I have a blog post from a few months back where a shop had two laptops stolen in seconds. All of the data went with the laptops.
If all your backups are in one place, and it’s the same place as your computer, this is not a great backup strategy. A good backup strategy would be to have at least one of your backups somewhere else. So in case of a fire, burglary or some other disaster, all of your backups will not be at risk.
This same principle applies to media types as well. No good have the CDs and the hard drives all sitting under your desk. If you can’t move them to outside of the house of office, then at least keep them in separate rooms. Obviously this is where online backup can play a big role, as its remote. In the cloud is as remote as you can get I suppose.
Number of backups
This next rule is about keeping a master backup. What happens if you’re part way through a backup to an external hard drive and it fails? Or you think it has completed and nothing has actually been transferred and you don’t notice? Should this happen to you, although you may think you now have 2 sets of backups, you really only have one. Rule of thumb is that you should never overwrite your only backup in case something goes wrong.
What software
There are lots of online backup providers available today and luckily enough they are all very affordable. I suggest you trial a few and see how easy they are to backup your files as well as restore them. Compare prices and what other features they have eg online access to your files or even the ability to have one account across PC and Mac and even Linux if you use it. The more flexible the better but be sure to also pick a system on its usability. Having every feature under the sun isn’t everything.
Carbonite is great because it is automated and very user friendly. However it will only cover your offsite backup needs. There are also tools like Acronis that you can use to backup instantly to your hard drive. One piece of software will not do it all for you.
No one says you need to go out there and buy it all at once. Make a plan and start to construct it. Buying and installing each piece of the backup strategy gradually.
What else do I need?
- One large external hard drive (1TB or greater) with either FireWire or USB.
- Some writeable CDs or DVDs.
- A license to Carbonite (giving you unlimited online backup)
- A license to Acronis for instant backup to your hard drive.
Use Acronis to backup to your external drives. You can set this to run daily or every other day depending on how much new data you write.
Configure Carbonite to backup all of your data automatically for you. It will pick up every change up ensure your offsite backup always have the most recent version.
One More Thing…
There’s no point in making backups if you aren’t making sure that your backups work. Get into the habit of check your hard drives at least once or twice a week is recommended. Do a restore of some files from Carbonite on a regular basis to ensure it is working right.
There’s nothing worse than having gone to all the trouble of setting up your external drive to backup weekly and your Carbonite to backup automatically offsite, only to find when you really need to restore some personal data, that your backups are corrupted or aren’t readable.
