How Safe Is Your Data?

What would you do if you switched your computer on tomorrow morning, only to see an error message and to find that some of your important files had become corrupted. You may no longer be able to open some files or even worse, files might have gone missing without a trace.

Welcome to the world of data loss!

If you rely on your computer then no doubt this would be a total disaster, and if you run any kind of web site or online business, things would get worse before they got better.

Just imagine loosing a file that contained your entire ezine subscriber base or the file where you archive all of your emails that contain your usernames and passwords. Need I say more? You can readily see that backing up your data on a regular basis is not an option but a necessity, not only for the sake of your business but also for your sanity.

Consider the following statistics, showing the most common reasons for data loss:

42% Mechanical Failure

34% Human Error

15% Software Failure

6% Viruses

3% Natural Disaster

(Statistics taken from The Security News)

Repeat out loud: Backup, Backup, Backup!!

Now that you’ve got the message, you’ll need to know how to go about backing up your data. There are several options available, but for the purpose of this article I want to concentrate on the different methods of online backup over the Internet.

Basically there are two types of online backup services. With the first, once you have downloaded the software and installed it on you PC you just connect to the backup provider’s server and away you go. You can now choose which files you want backed up and it’s just a case of transferring them over the Internet, rather like using FTP to upload your web pages to your web host.

With this option you usually have a monthly fee of anywhere from $5-$20. The software is easy to use and restoring your files is just as simple as backing them up in the first place. You can backup as many files as you wish and even your entire PC if you like, although this will take quite some time.

If the worst happened and you lost everything, you can just restore all of your files back onto your computer. As this may take a while, some services will provide you with a CD containing everything you have backed up, most often there is an extra charge of about $20 for this.

The second option is to use a web based backup service, you can do this from your browser window and just like web based email you have access to your files from any computer with an Internet connection.

This kind of service will generally provide you with 10-20 MB of file space and is most often free. You can’t backup quite as much using this system but if you just need to backup the odd file or two, then this could be the best option for you.

Top Tips For Backup:

–> Know where your important files are located.

–> Keep your backup disks safe.

–> Keep several copies of important data.

–> Store disks in different locations.

–> Decide on a backup schedule and stick to it.

–> Replace backup disks regularly.

–> START TODAY - Remember, it’s better to be safe than sorry!!

Following are a number of different backup services. Have a look through the list — you should find something that works well for you. Remember the key is having a simple system and putting it into practice.

Connected Corporation

BackupNet

Freedrive

Filesanywhere

Internet Filezone

X Drive

Driveway

Maxisafe

Safeguard Interactive

E-Store Backup Service

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