Our computers have become almost indispensable ministry tools. What would you do if the worst happened and you had to function without your computers? Would your ministry survive?

This article is the first in a 3-part series on how to protect your ministry from serious computer-related loss. This time we’re going to focus on protecting your critical data with effective backups. In the next two installments, we’ll cover the basics of network security and finally what you should know about software license compliance.

Ineffective data backups really do have the potential to hurt your ministry. Here are some frightening statistics:

31% of PC users have lost all of their files due to events beyond their control.

60% of companies that lose their data will shut down within 6 months of the disaster.

Armed with the right knowledge, you can protect yourself and avoid becoming another statistic.

Back Up Your Data!

Most people would agree that computer data is one of their most valuable organizational assets. What would you do if all your donor and accounting files were suddenly gone forever because a hard drive on your server crashed? This could also happen through disgruntled employees, accidental deletion, corruption in one of your software programs or even because of an attack from an outside hacker. The first line of defense in protecting your ministry data is to perform regular backups.

What exactly is a backup? It’s when you make a copy of your important data and keep it in a safe place, so you can restore that data if it ever becomes necessary later. The most common method of backing up data is to use a tape drive and backup tapes. I’ll have some important recommendations for you later in this article, but the critical thing to understand is that you MUST do something…any kind of data backup is better than none at all. If you ignore your data, it just might go away!

Back to the Future

Remember the 1985 movie “Back to the Future”? Just like the character in that film used a sports car to travel back in time, you can take your ministry back in time, too. Instead of keeping just one backup copy of your data, you should set up a system that keeps copies of your data for set time intervals (every day, every week, every month, every quarter, every year, etc.). Use a different tape or disk for each backup you make and then label them by date, and you will soon have a library of archived data backups you can restore from as needed.

Why go through all that trouble? Well, suppose you find out that a very important Excel spreadsheet is now corrupted and you can’t open it. You haven’t used it for several months, and your backup strategy has been to keep writing over the same tapes every week. Chances are all the backups of that Excel file are probably corrupted, too! But what if you would’ve used a different strategy and kept an archive of your backups for each month of the previous year? You could then easily go back in time to the month when you knew the Excel file was still working and restore that copy…the issue would be quickly & easily resolved. Time travel can be pretty useful sometimes!

How to Make Effective Data Backups

If you have multiple computers networked in your office, keeping all your data in a single location (like a file server) and backing that up every night is the recommended way to perform backups. I would also recommend using a 20-tape rotation, which gives you the ability to “go back in time” up to a whole year (in various intervals) to restore important files.

You should also keep the most recent copy of your backup off-site (i.e., at another location away from your office). This is critical because if your building burned to the ground, your data backups would be destroyed right along with it. With a recent off-site copy, you could restore what you need on new equipment and get back to the business of ministry quickly.

I recommend using enterprise-quality backup software to perform your data backups. Good software, like Veritas Backup Exec and Computer Associates BrightStor ArcServe will schedule everything for you, run automatically and keep logs of everything that does and doesn’t get backed up. These programs can also notify you by email (or some other method) when a backup is finished, if it was successful and whether or not you need to address anything. Aside from a little ongoing monitoring, everything can be automated. All you have to do is remember to change tapes every day.

If you’re a home office or small office user without the resources to do tape backups, a ZIP drive, an external hard drive, a CD/DVD burner or even one of those cool little USB jump drives that fit on a key ring would all be options to consider. There are also services that let you do online backups over the Internet for a monthly fee. These are good options, as long as the amount of data isn’t too large. Some services you can check into include Remote Data Backups, U.S. Data Trust’s LiveVault Online Backup Service and iBackup.

Another Form of Insurance

Backups are really like another form of insurance. What kind of problems would you have if your ministry data was wiped out? Could it be replaced at any price? With a relatively small initial investment in equipment and some ongoing monitoring and maintenance, you can practically guarantee that your critical data will be available when you need it.

Protecting your data by effective backups is only part of the solution. Next time we’ll talk about some simple steps you can take to protect your network against hackers, viruses, disgruntled employees and other potential vulnerabilities.

Donnie Schexnayder is a ministry technology expert. He holds industry certifications from Microsoft and CompTIA and has over 10 years experience in supporting churches and Christian ministries with technology. With a mixture of passion and expertise, Donnie helps ministries advance their mission of bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth by using cutting-edge technology. Donnie lives with his wife and 2 children in Colorado Springs, CO.

Eternitek: Advancing Christian Ministries Through Technology

http://www.eternitek.com

info@eternitek.com

Vision Backup
http://www.deprice.com/visionbackupenterprise.htm

Vision Backup 10 Enterprise is an advanced and easy-to-use backup solution, designed for scheduled backup of your mission critical data. Supported media’s include CD-R/CD-RW/DVD-R/DVD-RW, FTP/SFTP/FTPS, Tape, Flash Devices and USB Hard Drives. Vision Backup gives you the ability to backup all your valuable data on your entire network. Increase Vision Backup’s functionality by adding FREE plug-ins such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, Directories and Files, and My Desktop and Files.

SmartSync Pro
http://www.deprice.com/smartsyncpro.htm

SmartSync Pro is a universal tool to backup and synchronize your important data to the same drive, different drive, removable ZIP/JAZZ drive, network volume or even remote computer. To make the application automatically copy new and modified files to some destination, you just need to setup the profile using easy to use wizard just once. The profile defines what, where and when to copy. Obsolete files will be also removed when they are not needed. If source data are destroyed or lost, they can be recovered with one mouse click.

Genie Backup Manager
http://www.deprice.com/geniebackupmanagerprofessional.htm

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
http://www.deprice.com/handybackup.htm

Handy Backup is an easy-to-use program 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 Handy Backup 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.

Backup4All
http://www.deprice.com/backup4all.htm

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.

David Deprice has tested over 114 different backup programs. He made his findings publically available at http://www.deprice.com/utilities.htm

The following scenario’s have probably been repeated thousands of times, on computer systems of all kinds and sizes, operated by all levels of users from complete novice, to expert user.

· You log on and your computer will not boot to your operating system.

· You have installed some piece of new hardware, or some new software, your computer cannot find your operating system.

In more than 20 years of using personal computers, I have experienced all kinds of computer/operator failures. Some were caused by equipment failure, others by me doing something dumb. It really makes no difference, when your computer does not work, the only thing that matters is getting it up and running, and saving as much data as possible

All mechanical devices, will at some point fail, there is no timetable that tells you exactly when they will fail, however it is usually when you can least afford the time lost or the cost of repair, or of course immediately after the warranty has expired. Current computer hard drives are very reliable, they work for hours on end and keep right on ticking, they are however partially mechanical, as such they are subject to unannounced failure. They could fail in 5 minutes, or in 5 years or even longer.

As computer users we have all been admonished time and time again to backup our work on a regular basis, as insurance against losing data. Data can be lost in other ways of course, but if you do have a current backup you will only lose whatever you created or changed just before the failure.

My first experience with a hard drive failure was the classic computer will not boot. My first course of action was to call tech support from the manufacturer. The customer service rep stayed on the phone with me for about 4 hours, as we tried to diagnose where the problem was, after trying every thing she knew to try, she said they would send a technician to replace my hard drive. Of course none of my data was easily retrievable, and I did not have a current backup. Immediately after this episode I began to backup my data frequently. However at this particular time, backup software was not real easy to use, and choosing the media to backup to required the installation of more hardware. I quickly fell out of the habit of frequent backups.

I have experienced logon failures after adding or changing hardware or software many times. Usually followed by a call to customer support, which you most likely will have to pay for. Your support call may be transferred to a foreign country, your support person may or may not be highly qualified, there have been many instances where I felt that I knew more than the support person. There have been many instances that I managed to fix the problem myself, while waiting for support to get back to me. Sometimes I lost information, sometimes it was there but hard to find etc. The times that were most successful were when I did have a current backup.

Backup software has evolved, there are very easy programs to use, they are very easy to automate, the media options are many and easy to set up.

In my current setup I use Norton Ghost 9.0 as my software of choice, and I send my backups to a removable USB 2.0 hard drive. The advantages of this system are an extremely easy to set software program that can do anything form complete backups on whatever schedule you choose to complete copies of hard drives. The speed and safety of using a removable hard drive would be hard to beat. Because of the “set it and forget it” nature of this system, I now have complete backups always at hand.

Peace of mind is a wonderful thing

Jim Newell

Please visit http://www.edotmall2000.com/backup.htm for more information on these products and other solutions to backup and storage problems.

Jimmie Newell is an experienced computer user, and web publisher with many articles to his credit. Jim is the webmaster for http://www.edotmall2000.com an online shopping destination.

In the first part of this article series, I talked about the three main threats to the data on your computer. I talked about the need for a data backup solution that protects your data properly. In this article, I’ll outline the most common data backup solution options available to you.

A simple data backup solution

A simple way to backup your data is to save everything to CD. By burning your vital information to a CD-ROM, you can have another copy of your data if something goes wrong with your computer. Burning your data to a CD-ROM will provide rudimentary data backup protection. There are some problems with this approach however.

Burning your files regularly to CD requires human intervention and effort. It isn’t automatic. You have to take time out of your schedule to do it. People get busy, things happen and before you know it, you haven’t done a data backup in over a month then BAM! Your data is lost.

The second major threat to using CD’s as your data backup solution is that there are limitations to CD media. The first is that they won’t survive a fire. If your place or office burns down and you’ve stored your CD’s on site, your data is gone too. The second problem with CD media is that the media itself degrades over time. A recent study found that even CD’s that were advertised to last for 100 years were loosing data after just two or three years.

Burning your data to CD is certainly much better than doing nothing but it has limitations.

Saving Data to a Web Server

With the advent of inexpensive online data storage options, it is now possible to archive your most crucial data online. This option potentially protects you from theft and it is an off site option so it protects you from fire. The only way theft could risk your data is if your computers are not password protected by default and you choose to save all your passwords automatically in your applications. If this is the case, someone who gains physical access to your computers could certainly gain access to your data. This issue aside, saving your files to a web server is certainly an option.

The limitation to this data backup solution usually revolves around the cost for the web server storage. While it is usually cost effective for up to 2 GB of data, it isn’t appropriate for backing up an entire hard drive worth of data.

In House Hardware Data Backup Solutions

Another data backup solution is to equip your computers with RAID compatible motherboards and install multiple hard drives in each computer. This option protects your computers from hard drive crashes. It will usually require the services of a computer hardware technician to setup. Done properly, it can pretty much protect you from all hardware failure type data loss.

This solution doesn’t usually protect you from theft as the extra hard drives for RAID storage are usually installed in your computer or in other equipment on site. It usually won’t protect you from fire either so this method does have its limitations.

Use a combination of all three data backup solutions

For maximum protection, you should consider using a combination of all three data backup solutions for maximum protection. Burn critical documents to CD on a regular basis. Get a web hosting account with lots of storage and upload critical files to the web server. With this option however, keep in mind that unless the data is encrypted on your end, an administrator of the web server could potentially access all your data.

Finally, along with burning a CD and using an off site web server, get a qualified computer technician to install a RAID system in your computer systems. If cost is an issue, get at least one of your computers installed with a RAID capable hard drive and at least one other hard drive.

Using these three data backup solutions, you will minimize the risk to your data and to your livelihood.

Joe Duchesne is the webmaster of GreatComputerInfo.com a computer hardware information site. Reprint freely as long as you maintain the live keyword rich links in this resource box.

Oh the perils of collecting those precious photos on your PC for years, only to have your hard drive crash one day, and not have made a SINGLE BACKUP COPY of any of your priceless pictures. Well, now is the time to backup your hard drive. A few simple steps will set you on your way…so let’s not think about it anymore: let’s DO it.

There are several ways you can backup your PC data.

1.) CD’s and DVD’s are one of the simplest ways to go. It’s a very simple process to pop in a CD-ROM and burn a copy of your important information, but there’s a catch: you’ll have to be disciplined enough to do this on a regular basis. You’ll also have to burn new CD’s weekly in order to keep up with the new information you’ve just stored on your PC for the past week and this can get rather expensive as you go out to buy new CD-ROMS every month. So there are other solutions…

2.) Another way to go, is to purchase an external hard drive. You can drag and rop all of our new data onto your hard drive and it will replace the old data. This way you don’t have to burn new CD’s or DVD’s for each backup. However, you still have to be disciplined enough to remember to do this each week…so there is yet another solution.

3.) If you have Windows XP Professional, you can use what is called Microsoft Backup, a utility that lets you create backups of data that you choose and be able to run these backups on schedule. The only disadvantage to using Microsoft Backup is that you must use your backups with the same operating system. For example, if your Windows ME hard drive crashed, you couldn’t use a backup you created there in Windows XP.

So, there you have several ways you can backup your PC data and be safe. Keep in mind that despite the disadvantages of CD-ROM and DVD backup (purchasing new CD’s and performing backups regularly), you can’t beat the fact that CD’s and DVD’s last for years and are transportable, which is great for traveling.

If you’re anything like me, you probably have a whole slew of information stored on your PC, much of which is personal in nature (such as family pics), and most of which is business-related (which is crucial to your business success).

Being sure that you select at least one method of backup is your first step. Your second step is to make sure you follow through with this plan each and every week.

Remember, consistency is key.

Back up your data, and save your life!

Demetria Zinga is the founder and owner of http://www.faith-media.com, a technology and consulting firm which specializes in web design and hosting, graphics and print designs, internet marketing, and e-training. She is also the founder of http://www.christianladies.net, an interactive ezine, blog, and podcast for Christian women.

Is a data backup solution part of your computer plans? Do you have a way to protect yourself if something goes wrong with your computer or data? Computers are a useful part of our lives but we don’t always protect ourselves from their loss be it fire, theft or hardware failure.

We often don’t consider how fragile our computer data really is. Do you keep sensitive information on your computer that you would be upset if you lost it? Not sure? Consider this. If I told you that I was going to format your hard drive right now and you will lose all of the information on your computer, would you be ready? Or would you need to get a few files first… If you are in the second group, chances are you don’t have a proper data backup solution in place to help you handle disasters.

What happens if your computers are stolen?

I recently had a business colleague of mine who’s office was robbed and who had all of his computers stolen. He naturally felt helpless and victimized over the situation. What was especially frustrating was that he thought he had taken the proper measures to secure his office. He had a good security system in place, had secured his premises and yet they were still able to cut his phone lines, disable his alarm and have their way in his office. Don’t think a computer theft can happen to you? You know what? It can happen to anyone and you don’t have to own a business.

Computer hard drives do crash

If theft doesn’t get your computer, a hard drive failure certainly might. Hard drives are the devices in your computer that store the information on your computer. Your computers’ long term memory if you will. They are built with rotating mechanical parts. These parts break down. If they break down, your data can be gone. Are you prepared?

Data on a hard drive can often be recovered by expert data retrieval houses but their prices usually start at $10,000 and up. Want to avoid such costly recovering options? Establish a data backup solution.

A fire can wipe out your computers and your data

If computer theft or hard drive failure don’t destroy the data on your computers, a fire certainly might. This threat speaks to an off site backup storage solution. While the first two can be averted by simply burning a CD of your most critical data, fire can destroy your CD’s too if they aren’t stored off site. Fire is just one more reason why a data backup solution needs to be a part of your vocabulary and your action plan.

Protecting your data just makes good common sense. If you have data that you don’t want to loose – and most of us do – you owe it to yourself to protect your data. The next article in this series gives you some simple steps you can follow to protect yourself from data loss.

Joe Duchesne is the webmaster of GreatComputerInfo.com a computer hardware information site. Reprint freely as long as you maintain the live keyword rich links in this resource box.

"Why should you be afraid?", I can hear you ask.

I just got an email from my friend Miche who said,

"My laptop is sick at the hospital. Hard Drive failure. Am praying data can be retrieved."

Her exact words.

Ohhhh : tremors of fear running up and down my spine!

Why?

Because … and I have to be honest … I haven’t *backed up* my laptop for ages!

Oh I can hear your derisive laughter, your looks of scorn … I can feel your disbelief.

Me - of all people - admitting this. My friends call me "TechieGirl"!

Well, the best part of my friend’s scary dilemma is that it’s forcing me into action!

I’m dusting off the cd burner and plugging into the power, plugging it into the USB slot - now how *hard* was that? I’ve got a stack of blank cds gathering dust on my desk … why not use them?

Hmm … why not do a *big* backup on the first of each month, and a *mini* backup every Monday [or Tuesday or Friday … whatever works best for you]?

::::: Plan it! :::::

OK - stick with me here - open your online Diary or Appointments Database or hard-copy Diary and make an appointment *with yourself* - which part of the week could you devote say a half hour to, to do a quick backup? What about when you sit down to open the mail, or read a report, do your return phonecalls? If you work from home, why not start the backup as soon as you get out of bed so it’ll be done by the time you’ve had your walk, eaten your breakfast, and showered.

I can hear you saying, "Oh it’ll take too long … I’ll do it later … tomorrow … next week … next month …". And then one day I’ll be getting an email or a call from you saying, "If only I’d backed up the computer …"

Imagine losing all your documents, projects, databases, passwords, software settings, names, addresses, phone numbers, email names, website links - YIKES! I’m scaring myself again!!!!

If I lost even *one* thing in that list above, I’d be in BIG trouble - REAL BIG trouble.

::::: What do I backup? :::::

Good question. The most important thing NOT to backup is your software.

You do have all the original cds, don’t you? And you made copies of those cds when you bought the software, right, as a *backup* in case the original cd failed? Didn’t you? Yeah, I thought so … no-one bothers to do that, but it’s the one thing which could save your hair from going white overnight after your computer dies.

MUST backup:

* LOGINS, ALL passwords, FTP access codes, banking details, etc. Where do you currently keep this info? Please don’t tell me it’s in a little book on your desk … oh so easy to get lost, to get put in someone else’s pocket, to go walk-about. You should have a password-protected spreadsheet or document, or even better - a password-protected database. I have a database which I open as soon as I create a new login, or add myself to a mailing list, or join a new news group etc - paste the info in *as* you create it, to ensure you’ll *never* forget it. Sure, you sometimes get confirmation emails with this data … but if your computer has *died* … get the picture? You can’t access the emails!

* CLIENT documents / projects / websites (if you’re a developer), in fact ANYTHING which could cause grief if you lost it or didn’t have a copy of it. If you’ve printed a lot of this stuff, what would you need if you had a *fire* and lost all your paper files? Think about that. Hard. Now make a list and maybe have a backup cd for each Client or group of clients, depending on your business.

* EMAIL software folder which should include ALL your emails. You do *keep* all emails don’t you? Please tell me you’re not one of those people who deletes emails as soon as you read them (business ones I mean). Have you ever considered that emails are a form of *database*? I can search my Eudora software for any word or phrase and in a nanosecond I have a list of emails relating to that item (all neatly filed in their email folders … but that’s *another* article!). I *love* Eudora’s features! Getting back to business, emails with historical information on projects are invaluable to see who said what and when they said it. It’s a timeline, tracking resource, for a project’s life.

* PHOTOS, personal, professional - unless you’re using them all the time, these can be kept on CDs on a regular basis. When you download from the digital camera, save to cd straight away and save space on your hard drive [note to "self" : follow own suggestion]. If you have photos related to a project or client, save them to the Client cd you created earlier, if there’s space.

* FINANCIALS. All your spreadsheets, MYOB or whatever other software you use to track financials. Every document which the tax department might one day want to see … for the past 7 years. Business plans, budgets, everything relating to your business which you’ll need to continue to *be* in business.

* FAXES - do you use online faxing like I do? Where every incoming fax comes into my inbox as an email? From now on, whenever one arrives, put it into a folder called FAXES or save with your client data. Faxes are also a record of what’s transpired - another form of database. Plus if you use this kind of fax service, you’re saving trees. >

* INSURANCE. Keep quotes etc on your computer? You’ll be needing these.

* DATABASES - all of them. A must. Trust me, you’ll kick yourself if you need one of these you didn’t bother backing up.

* COMPUTER DESKTOP. OK - what’s still sitting on your desktop which hasn’t be put away or filed yet? Probably a bunch o’stuff - clear this up before you backup, make your job that little bit easier.

* EXCEPTION to the SOFTWARE RULE above - if you’ve bought any software online, or downloaded any software or programs of any kind for which you did not receive a cd, then back it up. If you’ve still got the Installer file, save that - it’ll save time.

* BROWSER Settings - go through your browser Preferences screens, take snapshots (like printscreen) of those settings - it’ll save you a TON of time if you have to set up your email and ISP settings at a later date.

* PDFs : have you downloaded any pdfs or purchased any ebooks? Are they all in the same download folder, or in a PDF or eBook folder? You’ll want to save these.

Oh boy - I just looked at my hard drive - 222 folders of stuff - I need to do some serious sorting and computer *housekeeping* before I do a backup, otherwise it’ll take forever to sift through all that stuff! So here’s the list of things to do:

* tip : do it in bite-sized pieces, baby steps, little chunks each day

* make a list of things you want to backup - think about your client info etc

* do your computer housekeeping, put things away in folders, then put those folders in main folders to tidy up your own special filing system - do this on one day so it’s not too overwhelming

* on the next day, make sure you have spare cds - you might need a few, depending on how much filing needs to be done; go buy cds if you need to. Consider buying Read Write cds, rather than the regular cds - if you want to be able to add info to cds later.

* if you’ve got an internal cd burner in your computer, you’re a lucky dog - if you’ve got an external one, plug it in and make sure it works

* when you’re ready, start the software you need to backup (usually Toast or something similar)

* be prepared for this to take at least an hour, maybe more if you’ve got a ton of stuff, but *don’t * put it off! An hour spent now could save you *weeks* of worry and work in the future!

* when you’ve done the first *big* backup, pat yourself on the back, you’ve accomplished a very important business task!!!

While you’re feeling smug and proud of yourself, think about when you should do your next backup. How much work would you be ok about losing? One day’s worth? One week’s worth? How about a month of work? Whichever is the one you choose, make *that* the amount of time before you do your first *mini* backup. Don’t be afraid to set other backup procedures for times which suit you, your projects, your clients.

The main question you need to ask yourself is,

"How much work would it be OK to *lose* without it affecting me or my business?"

::::: DON’T FORGET :::::

Label your cds. How are you going to file them? In a cd box? Will they be in a hard plastic shell or sleeve? Where would it make sense to *see* the client name on the cover, when it’s in the box? How easily would you be able to find a cd in that box? You can write on cds with thick permanent markers, or if you’re really keen, you can print onto cd labels (available from many stationery companies).

Keep 2 backup copies.

If you don’t work at home, it might be worthwhile keeping a backup copy of the backup - one at work, one at home. Just in case.

Now that I’ve scared myself silly, I’m off to dust the cd burner and make a latte - don’t expect me to reply to your emails over the next few hours, I’m doing a backup!

© Teena Hughes is the Director of Build A Website Tonight, a website where you can build your own site online - with no skill - no fear - with no additional costs to update your site. Teena has been involved in the I.T. industry for over twenty years and has written many articles and ebooks, and loves to help people get their business started.

http://www.BuildAWebsiteTonight.com

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What to backup, and what to lose

The oldest “computer expression” is that there are two kinds of computer users, those that backup their data and those that will. Often, it takes a “data disaster” to compel otherwise responsible people to make a regular habit of backing up their data. Still, the majority of computer users do not back up their data.

According to Computer World, the annual cost to recover lost data per laptop is over $800.00 per year. This amounts to billions of dollars per year spent nationally to recover (or not recover) data that has been lost due to users not backing up their data. Critical data files are often stored on personal computers and laptops and often not subject to regular backup.

If backup is so important, then why don’t most people do it?

The truth is, backing up data from your computer to CDs, memory sticks, other computers, and network hard drives is inconvenient. It takes time out of a busy day. Most backup utilities require the users attention to start, monitor, and close the process. Backup takes time from the user that can be better spent doing something else. Backup is boring, since it may disable or tie up your computer while the backup is taking place.

So what data should I back up?

The simple answer is any file that you would miss if you did not have it. This includes documents, presentations, spreadsheets, accounting data, and other data files. Also include your Favorites folder, telephone directory, appointment calendar, and tasks. It may also include pictures, music, family video, and any other data that is significant, especially if lost.

Look at all of the programs that you use regularly. Find the data files that these programs and mark these for regular backup. Often these files are not behind your MY Documents folder.

For example, if you use Quicken or QuickBooks, the important data files are saved in a folder behind the Quicken or QuickBooks program. In Microsoft Windows XP, these files could be under Documents and Settings/user/Application Data. In addition, the Application Data file may also contain important information that aids in your ability to use many of your favorite programs. If you do not know how to get to these files, consult an expert to help you determine what files to choose for regular backup.

How often should I back up?

Think of this question another way – if my hard disk crashed, or I dropped my laptop, or it got stolen at the airport, how much time will it take me to re-create the active data that I just lost? What would it cost you to lose a day’s worth of data and to recreate it? How much time would it take to reconfigure your computer with the tools, configurations, short cuts, and links that you have spent years accumulating? Remember the Computer World data, the average cost per laptop for lost data is $800.00 per year. What is your billing rate? How much will it cost you to start over?

Some of us use our computers the entire day. That means that if we back up daily, then the most time that we would spend redoing the work would be less than a day’s worth of time. If you are an occasional user, then you may need to backup less frequently.

Once you have made your list, then you are ready to back up. Here is my partial list of backup files that would cause me great pain if they were not backed up:

What’s the Solution?

The solution is to find a backup solution that is invisible to the user and does not create a “backup event” that must be scheduled from a person’s busy day. So hold this thought for the moment.

Once you have determined which files to back up regularly, you must decide where to store this data. In the early days of computing, we used to back up to floppy disks. Now, our files are huge and often too large for floppy disks. CD ROMs are popular for backup and will now hold over 750 MB of data. DVDs can also be used for backup and how many times more data than CD ROMS.

At the beginning of this article, I said that backup is inconvenient and that is why most people don’t do it. Therefore lets find solutions that are convenient. Not just convenient, but invisible like an insurance policy that just works.

If you are a lone computer user and are not on a network, the best solution is to get an external hard drive that plugs into your USB port. These data storage devices are relatively cheap for the benefit that they provide. Follow this link for examples of these products: http://www.google.com/froogle?q=USB+Hard+drive. If you are using Windows XP, then you can use the Windows Synchronize utility found in XP. To use, copy all of your data to the external drive. Then install the Windows Synchronize utility to automatically keep your files up to date when you plug the external drive into your computer. When you travel with your laptop computer, leave the USB hard drive at home. Never carry it in your computer bag. If you are backing up your desktop, take the USB hard drive with you – or at least store it at a location separate from your desktop in case of fire or other disaster.

If you are on a network, such as a home or business network, set aside some backup space on a hard drive on the network or on another computer. Hard drives are cheap. If you need more space than is available, buy another hard drive and install it on another computer. Use Windows Synchronize utility to keep the data synced.

If you use a laptop or work in different locations, a new product called BeInSync automatically makes the connection over the Internet between your laptop and a designated target computer for syncing files. BeInSync updates, automatically and invisibly any and all files designated for syncing. It even allows you to sync files with friends and business associates. Since it works in the background, it does not require a backup event and impose itself on the user’s busy day.

Follow this link to get more information on BeInSync: http://www.beinsync.com/?rfrid=BIS-P-1038. One important note about BeInSync is that it will sync everything in the My Document folder. Move My Music, My Videos, and other large folders out of the My Documents before enabling BeInSync.

What’s the bottom line on backup?

The bottom line on backup is that it is absolutely necessary for everyone that has something to lose if his or her computer was lost, stolen, or simply failed from regular use. There is a wide variety of solutions in the marketplace to keep your data backed up. Spend the time to explore and implement your back up solution. If you are not technical, hire an expert to create a solution that works for you. It will be some of the best money that you will spend.

Eric Guth and Joel Gering are owners of http://www.ProtectMyLaptop.com and SecureTrieve and are experts in the areas of computer troubleshooting and creating and maintaining networks for small businesses and homes. They have over 25 years of hands on experience in data management, data security, and remote data recovery.

Imagine that you have been working on a file for the entire day and there was a power surge that caused your computer to ‘black out’. It would have been a frustrating experience for us as we had put in a lot of time and effort into it. I am sure that many of us would have experienced data loss in some form or another and have learnt to be wiser to backup our data to avoid any form of data loss.

Have you ever thought of a worst case scenario where a fire broke up and destroy your computer or where your laptop got stolen? Should that happen, the first thing that comes into your mind is the thousands of dollars that you spend on your computer or laptop and you would feel very upset about it. However, when you thought for a second moment, you started to realize that what is really valuable are the amount of data that you have built up over the years in it. Though hardware can always be replaced, even at no cost to you if you have insurance, but lost data is gone forever.

Lost data such as the thousands of mp3 and movies that you have downloaded from the Internet, thousands of digital photographs that are impossible to replace are lost in an instant. This form of data loss hits home especially hard when the laptop holds the lifeblood to your business. Imagine all your business contacts documents and contracts that you have painfully built up over the years would be vanished just like that. Your business would be wipe out overnight.

Do not wait for the worst to happen before you start to consider about data backup solution. Having a data backup solution will give you a peace of mind as you know that your data is in safe hand.

Justin Koh is a freelance writer whose articles have appear in most major ezine. You can find more of these at: http://www.backupcenter.info

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

As someone who has seen quite a few hard drive crashes over the years, I believe that performing a full backup of your computer’s hard drive should be an important part of your weekly (if not daily) routine. There’s nothing more frustrating & costly than trying to restore a computer with only a handful of Floppy disk drives, a couple of scratched CD-ROMs or poorly stored backup tapes.

All too often have I been called upon to try and get a home or office computer working again, only to find that the backup (if any) consists of a few word files and maybe a copy of some accounts data?

Now you might be thinking what’s wrong with that? Aren’t those the important files? Well, yes! But what about your Emails, Address book, all your Desktop/Internet Shortcuts, FTP settings, Anti-Spam & Anti-Popup filters etc.? You’ve spend months if not years getting your PC looking and running just the way you like it and in one split second it’s all gone.

Now assuming you’ve got all these backed-up, just think, how long it’s going to take even for an experienced technician to re-install the Operating System and then all your programs like MS Office etc. and that’s if you can find the original CD-ROMs that came with your PC. Plus what about the programs & updates you downloaded from the Internet and stored on your now crashed hard drive. What a nightmare!

So you do the best you can with what you’ve got and get your PC back to some useable state, but it’s only then you fully realize how poor your backup really was and how much time & money you lost while waiting for your system to be restored, not to mention the repair bill.

But you’re probably thinking to yourself, backups take so long to complete and how can you be sure your backing up all the necessary data? Well, as I see it, the only way you can be guaranteed you’re getting all your data is to create what’s called an image of your system (C:) drive.

By creating an image of your hard drive you are basically taking a snapshot or complete copy of your drive at a moment in time, you can then use that image to restore your system drive with a few clicks of the mouse and in a fraction of the time & hassle than with the earlier example.

You will need to have a second hard disk installed on your PC to store your image. I’d recommend one of equal size to your C: drive, you can use drives with less storage capacity but this would mean you’d probably have to apply compression when creating the image.

You’ll also need a backup software capable of creating drive images. There are numerous softwares available such as True Image from Acronis and Norton Ghost from Symantec to name but a few and most of these will allow you to schedule backups to run even when your away from your PC.

With regularly created full backup images, stored securely on a secondary drive out of harms way you can put your mind at ease and get on with more important tasks safe in the knowledge that when disaster strikes you’ll be more than capable of handling it. With a few mouse clicks you can start the restore procedure, go for a short break (have lunch, stroll around the block, catch up on some phone calls etc.) and in no time you’ll be up & running as if nothing had ever happened.

Give yourself that extra piece of mind and do something about putting a reliable backup system in place right now, because you know it’s not a matter of if your hard drive crashes but when and will you be ready for it?

You need to ask yourself… is your backup good enough?

Jeremiah O’Connell is an IT Administrator with AbbeyIT.net and has helped numerous home & small business users protect their data. For his preferred backup solutions visit: http://www.abbeyit.net/acronis-true-image.asp