Backup Backup & Backup Again

Dale Peters of Mr Fixit or Richard King of Computers Cyberspace are the last stops when the hard drive on your file server goes kaput. They have the tools and the knowhow somewhat like an archaeologist of extracting those all important now lost files that somehow didn't ever get backed up. At a cost somewhat like $100 per hour with no guarantees. How do you ever measure downtime let alone the cost of reconstruction? Richard has plenty of stories of whoa of shortsighted business men & women who don't think it will ever happen to them. I personally cannot afford to leave it to chance.

A NYT article put it quite succinctly -
HURRICANE KATRINA uprooted trees, knocked down power lines, flooded homes and obliterated possibly more than a terabyte or two of data. "In all the disaster evacuation check lists, there's nothing about making a copy of what's on your computer," said Janet England, a marketing executive in New Orleans who lost everything in the storm, including all the information stored on her personal computer's hard drive.

Backing up data — making a separate copy — is not only wise in case of a disaster. It's also insurance against mechanical failure, theft, computer viruses and accidental deletions. More backup options have become available in the last two years, priced according to storage capacity, ease of use and privacy protection.

Here is my own personal backup strategy
1. An automated daily overnight backup of essential data to a Network LAN Hard Drive.
2. A weekly / fortnightly of essential data to a DVD (kept offsite)
3. A monthly image of the entire file server hard drive to a removable hard drive (again kept offsite)

Cost:

1. Purchase & installation of LAN Hard Drive - $300. Software - Karen's Replicator - Cost Nil (freeware)


2. DVD burner - $100 DVD - 50 cents


3. Second Hard Drive, Removable Hard Drive Bay, Nortons Ghost $300

Add it up, that's spending less than $1000 upfront. For a medium size business I dont imagine you would have to spend that much more.

When did you last backup?