Here is a Case study of how Online Business owners affected by Hurricane Katrina got through the crisis. We can all learn from their stories.

Business owner 1 ran a very successful online storefront from his home in the Gulf Coast region. He ran his business off a desktop computer. When he heard the Hurricane Warnings he backed his data up using a DVD Recorder. He also decided to buy that laptop he had wanted for so long. He took his DVD back-up and restored it to his laptop and did a few hours of testing to make sure his laptop was operational. After he was sure he had a good backup copy. He Made 3 Copies of his DVD Backup. He mailed one DVD to a relative in Arizona. He placed the 2nd DVD Backup in a Safe Deposit box in his bank and he left the 3rd DVD backup with his laptop computer. On Sunday when the mandatory evacuation order came he moved his home desktop computer to his attic. He grabbed his Laptop and a suitcase and drove to Safety. Today 2 weeks after the Hurricane Katrina Disaster he is running his online business from his hotel room on his laptop.

Our second business owner lives in the St. Louis Area 700 Miles from the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Area. His online business was hosted by a New Orleans based company. Hearing about the Hurricane he decided to log into his CPanel and backup his web site. He downloaded the backup to his personal computer. A few days later when his Host went down because of the Hurricane Katrina he simply found a new host restore his web page from his backup to his new host. Changed his Name Servers with his registrar and he was back in business a few days later when the new Name Servers Propagated across the Internet.

You got me both business owners are fictional, However the stories they tell are important. You need to be prepared for a disaster. In both cases our business owners were able to recover from Hurricane Katrina by listening to the warnings and doing make the required preparations. What if there had been no warnings? What if this had been a Fire, Earthquake, Theft or Terrorist Attack? Neither of our business owners would have been prepared. Are you prepared? Consider this your warning. Backup your data. Place a copy of that backup in a safe place nearby. Mail a copy of that backup to a trusted friend or associate 1,000 miles or more away.

About The Author:
Mike Makler has been Marketing Online Since 2001 When he Built an Organization of over 100,000 Members

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Copyright © 2005-2006 Mike Makler the Coolest Guy in the Universe

You know that you should back your data up. But you still don’t because you don’t know what to get. Here is the overview of four budget backup solutions that I’ve personally used and can vouch for.

Acronis True Image 8.0 (Acronis)

Acronis True Image allows you to create an exact disk image for complete system backup and disk cloning providing the most comprehensive data protection. The disk backup file contains the exact copy of a hard disk, including all the computer data, operating system, and programs. After a system crash you can restore the entire system or simply replace lost files and folders from your disk backup, so you don’t need to reinstall Windows. Acronis True Image 8.0 is quite speedy, creating an image of a 46 gig partition in approximately 8 minutes with little compression. Restoring a complete image can be a lot longer than creating one, but with the built in Rescue Media Builder, its as easy as booting from that CD, telling it where the image is, and what partition to restore it to. You can wander off for dinner or TV and reboot your computer to the image you have saved, ready to go in roughly 30 minutes for an 80 gig drive. The time to save and restore images is hard to estimate here because larger partitions and more compression takes longer then a smaller partition and no compression.

Genie Backup Manager Professional (Genie Soft)

Genie Backup Manager Professional is a very easy to use yet powerful and flexible software that can backup and restore files, documents, emails, settings, programs and more to virtually any local or remote device including internal and external hard disks, FTP locations, across network, CD/DVD discs, removable media, memory sticks, and tapes. GBM Pro is perfect for users of all computer comfort levels. Novice users will find it easy to create their first backup job in matter of minutes after installing the software, thanks to its intuitive wizard-based user interface, while advanced users will appreciate the software’s extended flexibility and features such as preserving NTFS Alternative Data Streams, Email notification, Self executable backup sets, and scripting capabilities (GRunScript and GenieScript).

HandyBackup (Novosoft)

HandyBackup is so easy, you might actually find yourself backing data up. HandyBackup is designed for an automatic backup of your critical data virtually to any type of storage media including CD-RW devices and remote FTP servers. You can use HandyBackup to make a reserve copy of any valuable data on your system. Special addons are provided to facilitate the backup of MS Outlook, system registry and ICQ files. Restoring is as easy as clicking a button, but you can also use a number of advanced options. The program can be also used to synchronize files between two computers on a network.

HandyBackup is designed for MS Windows 9x/NT/2000/ME/XP. Strong file encryption and multi-choice zip compression on the fly, as well as many other useful features, will protect your valuable data. All backup activities are recorded in a log file. Detailed online help is available, which is always nice.

Backup4All (Softland)

The software performs all four fundamental backup types: full backup, differential backup, incremental backup and mirror backup. Using the wizard you can easily set up any backup configuration you wish. You can define powerful file filters and schedule your backups any way you want. Once a backup is performed, you can see what files have been changed since the last backup using the explorer-like tree view or you can read the statistics about the next backup execution. You can use the context menu from the tree to run standard actions associated with the file type. I now use Backup4all to do my day-to-day backup, and I recommend it for those who want a more automated solution. It uses its own file catalog to keep track of what’s been backed up and when. That’s the only completely reliable way to do it — you can sometimes miss files with other methods.

Another safety feature - all files and subfolders are included unless you expressly exclude them (by unchecking). This means that if new files or subfolders are added to a folder, the next backup will pick them up as well. Not all backup programs work this way. Once in a while you may not want to back up a file that has been added to a folder, and if you forget to exclude it, it will be backed up anyway. Better to have backed up and not meant to, than not to have backed up at all.

Download Links

Acronis http://www.deprice.com/acronistrueimage.htm
GBM Pro http://www.deprice.com/geniebackupmanagerprofessional.htm
HandyBackup http://www.deprice.com/handybackup.htm
Backup4All http://www.deprice.com/backup4all.htm

John Deprice runs a website devoted to backup tools. To see his picks, visit http://www.deprice.com/utilities-10-1.htm

Think about it!

When you start a business you create a business plan. When you want to bring a product to market, you create a marketing plan.

Doesn’t it make sense to create a Business Continuity Plan to save your business? Of course it does!

Not every business disruption is caused by a major disaster. In fact, most are caused by everyday problems.

The night maintenance crew accidentally unplugged the server. An employee attempted to access a database that was being upgraded and corrupted the information it contained. Or the transformer down the street blew up during a sudden thunder storm.

In each case, your company could have been negatively impacted!

A solid business resumption plan would have predefined your responses to any of these situations. In fact, it would have helped you avoid the first two and greatly reduced the impact of the last.

Consider these statistics:

• 52% of American companies have had operations seriously interrupted because of computer hardware problems…

• 43% American companies have had operations negatively impacted because of problems with their software…

• 34% have had business operations seriously interrupted because of human error…

• 75% of companies impacted by a serious catastrophic event fail within two to five years…

Yes, a good business resumption plan is a time consuming project. Yes, you do not have enough time for the projects you already have. Much less the time to take on something new!

Ask yourself these simple questions.

1. What would happen to my business if all of my customer data were destroyed?

2. What would happen to my business if my building was flooded or destroyed?

If the answers to questions like these have only negative outcomes, then you need the services of a professional Business Continuity Planner.

Call on now!

Parrott Writing Services, a San Antonio Texas company specializing in web content, ghostwriting, website optimization, online/offline ad copy and technical writing to small businesses.

http://www.rickparrott.com

Send an email to: EBOOK@sasecure.net for a FREE electronic copy of my eBook on Computer Security!

"Disaster preparedness" sounds dry, even dull … until your business takes a major hit from circumstances beyond your control. The sudden devastation shakes you to the core. What do you do?

According to The Gartner Group, an IT industry consulting firm, four out of ten businesses hurt by disaster never get back on their feet. Two out of ten more go out of business within two years after a catastrophic event. The numbers are even more staggering for small and micro-businesses.

Ironically, smaller companies and home-based businesses are in a better position to recover quickly - if they’ve taken a few steps in advance to prepare. You can’t stop the force of nature. But you can keep your business from becoming another statistic!

Here are three fundamentals to greatly increase the odds that your small business will survive a disaster:

1. Back up your data. Computer files and sensitive papers are irreplaceable once they’re destroyed. If you work at home, copy your files daily and place the back ups and important papers in a fire- and water-resistant safe. Most small businesses don’t do this! But you must if you intend to quickly resume operations after the moment passes. If possible, keep your back ups in a separate location from your office.

2. Insure what you can’t afford to lose. This usually elicits a "sure … right!" from home-based business operators, especially early in their new careers. But can you afford to pay the replacement costs yourself? Also, make sure to keep updating your inventory and equipment list so that you can later prove your claim. Keep that list in your safe as well.

3. Network to cover your customers during your down-time. Make friends with other business owners who provide the same services that you do. Contrary to popular belief, you will likely gain your customers’ loyalty by helping them meet their needs elsewhere until you’re back in service. And if you think about it, they’ll have to go elsewhere anyway while you’re putting things back together!

These three steps - backing up your data, insuring what you can’t afford to lose, and networking with other service providers - will protect your business from most unnecessary harm due to disaster. They won’t cover everything but they will get you to "higher ground" if the unthinkable happens.

You can’t plan for everything. But most businesses that succumb to catastrophe do so because they missed the basics. The terrible moments always pass. Will your business still be standing?

(For more information on preparing your business for surviving and recovering from disaster, please see the expanded article series at the website listed below.)

(c) 2005 Michael Riley. All rights reserved.

Michael Riley is a freelance business writer and editor specializing in trade press and association publications. His website includes expanded coverage of this topic, as well as information on marketing your small business and improving customer relations. http://www.bymichaelriley.com

Imagine this - you arrive one morning to find that a faulty read-write head has crashed your server’s hard disk overnight, rendering it useless. Or a small electrical fire has destroyed part of your office, including your server. This server was used to store customer lists, payroll details, accounting details, purchase orders, inventories and other data vital to the running of your business, built up after years of operation and growth.

You find that you were seriously ill-prepared to deal with such a disaster. Virtually all of your business’ data had resided in this one location. No copies were made. You are faced with the fact that many years’ worth of data has been lost forever.

Insurance will replace materials, equipment and office space, but will that be enough to get your business up and running again? Your vital business data can’t be claimed on insurance, it can’t be replaced with money alone. Would your business survive after significant data loss? Unless you have a good backup system already in place, the statistics are grim…

* 43% of companies that experience a severe data loss disaster, and that have no recovery plan in place, never re-open.

* 70% of companies that suffer serious data loss go out of business within 12 months.

* It takes 19 days and costs US$17,000 (AUD$22,000) to manually retype 20 megabytes of sales data. The same volume of accounting data takes 21 days and costs US$19,000 (AUD$25,000).

* Loss of data cost US businesses in excess of 22 billion dollars in 2004.

Just as the costs of fire damage can’t be covered by insurance bought after the event, the costs of data loss can’t be avoided by acting after the loss has occurred. It is vitally important that data is backed up before encountering hard disk failure, viruses, malicious software, mistakes by employees or other causes of lost data.

Listed below are the 7 steps that we consider essential for the protection of important data.

1. Central storage of data on the network

The first step in setting up a backup system is deciding what needs to be backed up. Ask yourself, what can I afford to lose? For example, the latest Windows Service pack can be downloaded again, so there is little need to protect it; your customer database cannot so easily be replaced. Once you have identified the information you need to back up, you need to know where it is stored. Although it might seem counter-intuitive at first, as much of your critical data as possible should reside in one place on the network. It is far simpler and easier to backup, restore and protect one machine than several. As a side benefit, physical and network access to that machine (and therefore to critical and perhaps sensitive data) can more easily be restricted, improving security.

2. Multiple backups

You don’t want to have all your eggs in one basket. There are many reasons why your company should have access to several full system backups.

* A single backup could fail. Tapes, CDs and hard drives all wear out eventually, so you shouldn’t rely 100% on a single backup to store your data. The more copies you have, the less likely you are to lose all of your data to wear, fire damage, water damage, etc.

* In the case of accidental deletion, data loss is often noticed days after it occured, which means that if your only backup is from last night, you have no way of retrieving the data.

* Restoring files that were deliberately deleted months or even years ago, when you thought you would never need them again, can often be of great benefit.

3. Off-site backups

If your office burns down, you don’t want all your backups to burn with it, so it’s important to physically move some of your backups off-site. We recommend that any weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly backups are stored off-site at a secure location.

4. On-site backups

While it is important to have some backups off-site, you don’t want to have to travel back and forth whenever you need to retrieve a file. For this reason it’s useful to have recent daily backups available on-site to allow for quick recovery of files. These backups are still important, and for reasons of security and reliability it is best to store them in a secure place such as a fireproof safe, rather than next to the server or on the System Administrators desk.

5. Monitoring

If you need to restore a file or a whole system, you want to be sure that all backups completely successfully. It would be disastrous to learn that your backups had failed only when you attempt to perform a restoration. One way to ensure that each backup has been performed successfully is to check the backup logs each day. An easier method is to acquire backup software that notifies you daily of the backup status and can alert you to any problems.

6. Follow the plan

If you are using tapes, disks or removable hard drives for backing up, you will need to remember to change these regularly depending on the backup scheme you are using. Neglecting to do this could cause the backup to fail or could result in an important previous backup being overwritten. It is also important that you insert the right device, as having the 4th-of-June backup data on the 1st-of-January tape would make the right data very difficult to find.

7. Regular file list updating

As you install new programs, add hard drives and create new files, it is important to know that all new data is also protected. Of course, if you are backing up the whole C: drive, for example, any new files or programs on that drive will also be backed up automatically. However, if you are only backing up specific, important files, it is vital that you keep this list up to date, or you risk losing valuable data.

Keep in mind that the average failure rate of a hard disk is 100%, as every drive will fail eventually. Make sure you stay in business by following the seven points listed above. How do you do that? Well, that’s where a backup software package can help. Data protection need not require a full time IT professional; it can be done by almost anyone with a bare minimum of time to spare — all you need is the right tool. Backup software can automate much of the process, covering the seven steps above and providing comprehensive data protection for your business.

Linus Chang is a backup expert and the lead developer of BackupAssist - tape backup software that is simple and affordable, and perfect for small and medium businesses. Protect your Windows servers, including SQL Server and Exchange Server, to tape, REV drive, hard drive, NAS and more, at a fraction of the cost of other backup software.

There are so many ways to lose precious data stored on your hard disk - power loss or power surge, overheating, electrostatic discharge, virus attack, software failure, etc. Are you still thinking your data is safe? Don’t! Backup! Backup early, backup frequently.

WinBackup 2.0 Standard
Awarded Best Backup Software by Computer Shopper and termed "exceptionally simple to use" by PC World, WinBackup 2.0 Standard is now the obvious choice for home and small office users. Being one of the most efficient and reliable backup solutions available WinBackup 2.0 Standard will help you save both time and money.

WinBackup 2.0 Standard, the fastest backup and recovery software on the market, allows you to secure all your valuable data within minutes. Featuring a Windows-familiar and intuitive graphical user interface, WinBackup 2.0 Standard makes it extremely easy to set up and run regular backups in your existing environment. With shortcuts to over a 100 of the most popular applications, WinBackup 2.0 Standard makes it possible to easily and quickly backup emails, address books, bookmarks, digital images, financial documents and other records at the click of a button. Home and small office users can rely completely on WinBackup 2.0 Standard for full data consistency and integrity without compromising superior performance.

CompuApps Renaissance 2006 SE
Renaissance is a simple yet powerful Backup application that provides user the peace of mind by its ease of use, comfort and security, with optional verification. Renaissance enables selection of data with a quick and easy to use wizards. Comprehensive scheduling options allow the user to do backups at idle time, thus making the backup a painless and interference free process.

Protects servers, business-critical applications, desktops, and notebooks
Easy to set up and manage
Fast, reliable, secure backups
Smart restores with unparalleled accuracy
Backup to hard disks and removable disks
Simplifies media management

Major Functions
Dual Backup & Protection
Zero-Touch Backup
Value Pick
Find Files

Acronis True Image
The complete disk imaging, system disk backup, and bare metal restore for workstations and home PCs

Acronis True Image allows to create an exact disk backup image for complete system backup and disk cloning providing the most comprehensive data protection.

The disk backup file contains the exact copy of a hard disk, including all the computer data, operating system, and programs.

After a system crash you can restore the entire system or simply replace lost files and folders from your disk backup.

Based on the exclusive Acronis Drive Snapshot disk imaging technology, Acronis True Image allows to create an online system disk backup without reboot to keep the system productive. The product provides the fastest bare metal restore dramatically reducing a downtime and your IT costs.

For the complete server disk imaging, system disk backup, and bare metal restore see Acronis True Image Server

Key features:

• Online system disk backup and instant bare metal system restore
• Restore individual files and folders
• Integrated compression and password protection
• Disk imaging and disk cloning
• Incremental disk backup and disk backup image verification
• Acronis Secure Zone and Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

For More Information:

WinBackup 2.0 Standard: http://www.lightsparkle.com/product_page.php?product_id=12

CompuApps Renaissance 2006 SE: http://www.lightsparkle.com/product_page.php?product_id=593

Acronis True Image: http://www.lightsparkle.com/product_page.php?product_id=87

Joe Light values his data and backups frequently, because he knows the cost for recovering lost data. He shares his experience with backup software at http://www.lightsparkle.com.

COMPUTERS AND HALLOWEEN, DO THEY MIX?

Computer backup is so important to your computer that to ignore it is to risk its damnation.

Computers require care and feeding. They require that you attend to their needs. If you don’t, then they will most surely be sent to Hell.

Halloween means Hell. What! What do you mean that Halloween means Hell?

Well, if your computer is given the option of trick or treat, which will it accept? Will it accept the trick or the treat? What do you think?

Halloween is the time that computers are subject to tricks or treats. Did you know that more computers fail on Halloween than any other day of the year? That’s right. It’s true (smile). Your computer is in danger! Protect it. Do your computer backups.

Back to the Hell thing. Hell you say? Yep. Well, what do you mean by Hell?

Computer hell is the place for computers without computer backup. The failure to perform hard drive backup means that you are playing Russian Roulette with your data. Data needs your protection. Failure to protect your data may cause your home or business records to be sent to Hell.

Hell in this instance is for the records and files that cannot be resurrected. Resurrected you say, what does that mean?

It means that without computer backup as a source of salvation then the files can safely enjoy eternal oblivion. Oblivion you say, what does that mean? That means they are eternally lost from computer resurrection.

Is there any mercy for my precious files, you ask?

Why yes there is. Would like to know what the mercy for your files is? Yes! Yes! You say.

OK boys and girls listen carefully. The salvation, mercy, resurrection and redemption of your files lies in regular and consistent and persistent computer backup.

If you backup your computer consistently and persistently your files will be resurrected and saved from accidental deletion, hard drive failure and those nasty things like fire, flood, theft, earthquake, hurricanes, tornados and the like!

Computer backup is the key to your data’s salvation!

Do your computer backups boys and girls.

Milk and cookies will be served in the pantry.

Trick or treat for your computer backup?

Jack Back has been in the computer business since 1983 as an IT executive and working computer consultant company owner. He has helped many clients after a computer crash who had no computer backup. Now get your FREE 2 part guide on how to quickly and easily do computer backups and to save your irreplaceable computer data from loss, damage or destruction at the Computer Backup website.

"There are many reasons to use online backup. The simple fact is that your computer could get invaded or destroyed in minutes and it can happen completely suddenly as well. The fact is that more and more people are falling victim to this type of occurrence every day. What happens is that it leaves you without all that you know and need and leaves you without anyway of fixing it. Online backup is the perfect solution though because it allows you the ability to save whatever it is that you need to without thought or worry about anything happening to it.

Online backup should be thought of as a file cabinet for all of your important information. By using online databases to store this information, you are safeguarding it from anything that may happen to your computer’s hard drive or memory. You can store just about any type of information that you need to and it is completely and utterly safe. Most information that is saved in this manner is safeguarded from other people as well. You can make sure of this by not providing your personal information nor your username and password to retrieve it.

Why do you need online backup? Well, there are many reasons. And, there are many things that you can store in there. For example, you may find that there are business clients as well as a number of corporations that store their information on their computers. In these cases, a crash can be awful. In the case of the personal ecommerce entrepreneur, important contact information for clients as well the product lists and availabilities are all necessary and yet they too can fall victim to a crash if they are stored on the computer. Online backup systems can help to avoid all of this information as well as much more. "

for more information please see http://www.online-backup-help.co.uk

"Data-recovery is something we hope that we will never need. Whether you simply make the mistake of deleting important software or you lose it all in a computer crash, that valuable asset of information may seem like it is lost forever. But, if you have complete and quality data-recovery software on your computer or through your system, you can be confident that it has a backup and it is there even though these things have happened to you. This can be so important when it comes to safeguarding your business or your personal information.

What people do not realize is that there are a number to ways that things can go wrong on their computers. Whether you are responsible for the computers of a large corporation, a small business or even just your own personal computer, having a way to restore information when things do go wrong is quite important. Here are some things that could happen to you, well, anytime, even right now. Your computer could be running slowly or be loaded with powerful spyware that can destroy files, transmit personal data or, even worse, cause the computer to crash. All of a sudden, it’s gone. Or, you could be working along nicely without a care in the world and bam! A power surge, an electric storm or something else electrical happens and it’s all gone.

There are many more ways in which you can lose all of the personal data that is stored on your computer. You don’t even have to have the programs running to lose it. Nevertheless, many people mistakenly believe this will not happen to them and therefore do not do anything to prevent this total loss. Data-recovery is necessary for this to happen. The strange thing is, is that it takes only minutes to install and use and it virtually takes care of itself. It is not overly costly either. So, why don’t more people use data-recovery? They just don’t realize its importance. And, that is one mistake we don’t want to make. Data-recovery is a need all computer users have. "

for mroe information please see http://www.data-recovery-help.co.uk

In this computerized digital age, making backups of your critical data has become a crucial necessity.

You’ve probably heard the old cliché: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This couldn’t be a more accurate statement when it comes to backing up and saving your valuable data.

When your hard drive fails will you be prepared? It’s not a matter of “If the drive fails”, but more so “When the drive fails.”

Taking the relatively small amount of time, and resources to make a backup can save you and perhaps even your company potentially thousands of dollars in disaster recovery costs, loss of revenue and downtime.

Having backups of critical information is a must.

Data is simply Digital Information. Once this information is “lost” or inaccessible due to a hard drive failure, you quickly realize the value of that information.

Make Backups. Then verify the contents of your Backups, and Make Backups of your Backups.

If however you do find yourself in a quandary with a failed hard drive. Do not panic.

Here are some tips:

• *Any* sounds emitting from your drive is not a good sign. Power down immediately.

• Do NOT run scandisk, CHKDSK or any other disk checking utilities, as this could make matters seriously worse.

• Avoid powering the computer on and off. The clicking sound from your hard drive that you may be hearing, could lead to a grinding sound. Far less optimistic for successful recovery.

• NEVER, EVER listen to a computer “Guru” friend who says: “I can fix it!” Hard drives are delicate mechanical storage devices, and the inner workings and mechanics should always be left to a trained, experienced data recovery engineer. The hard drive is one of the few components of a computer that actually still has moving, mechanical parts.

If you do happen to find yourself with this type of unfortunate situation, ECO Data Recovery has been recovering critical data since 1987. Their highly skilled engineers have the ability, the “know how” and the proper techniques to get you and/or your business back on the speedy road to recovery.

Brian Cain ECO Data Recovery 4115 Burns Rd. Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410 1-800-339-3412 561-691-0019 http://www.ecodatarecovery.com brian@ecodatarecovery.com