Do you keep files on your computer? Are they important? Do you have a data backup? These are just some of the questions we will ask about your data.
What would happen should the hard drive on the computer you primarily use all of a sudden fail? If you’re like most of us, the failure could be catastrophic. Maybe your entire business is run and all of the files you need are on that hard drive. Maybe all of your kids pictures from when they were young or your parents pictures were on there and it is the only copy you have. These are just a couple of the main things we hear at quite often when a computer comes in and does not work. In most cases we have been able to recover these documents, but the best way to solve this issue is to always have a data backup plan.
There are a few ways you can backup your data. You could manually copy your documents to a flash drive or an external hard drive, use cloud based software or even software to backup to an external hard drive. We have the hardware and the software for backing up your data securely. Stop by our office, give us a call or send us a message for more information.
Tech Bytes offers two methods of backup services. The first method is a cloud-based backup. With our cloud backup, you choose which files you would like backed up nightly and then each night (or your chosen time of the day) the backup runs and makes sure your files are securely stored. This will protect you if the hard drive fails, in case there is a fire or any other disaster that could occur and potentially destroy your location. We normally recommend this method when there is not lots of space needed for the backup and for important documents that should not only be kept on site. It is a great idea to have more than 1 backup, and it is recommended that there are 3 sets of data, your main data, an offsite backup (such as cloud) and a local backup.
The other method is another local backup. This is a one-time cost for the software and a hard drive. The software will back up the majority of your hard drive (skipping the windows files, temp files and whatnot). Your important files would be backed up nightly onto your local hard drive. This is a great way to protect you in the case of a hard drive failure or a damaging virus. The nice thing about local backups are they are much quicker to restore in the case of disaster. With the software we use for local backups, there is another option outside of just backing up your data. You could get a hard drive of the same size and set it up so that it does a mirror image of the hard drive. This way, if your main hard drive fails, you can just unplug your main hard drive, and put this secondary hard drive in its place and your up and running.
If you are interested in any of these data backup services, send us a message or give us a call and we would be happy to help you decide the best method for backing up your data.
Which backup method should we use?
Deciding which method of back you should use is mostly a personal decision. Of course it is best to have multiple copies of your files and also have a copy of your data off-site in case of disaster. If you don’t have many files and they don’t change very often, we would suggest using a flash drive and manually copy your files when you make changes. We would suggest using a couple of different flash drives and have one at a secure location offsite – such as your house or a lock box at your bank.
If you are working with lots of files, or just don’t have much time, then the cloud data backup is a great way to backup your data. Using the cloud backup, the only thing you have to do is make sure that your computer is on and has a stable internet connection when the scheduled time for the backup comes around. You would not have to do anything for the backups and there would be a couple of possible revisions of the files stored. Then if you delete a file accidentally or incorrectly edit a file, you could actually re-download it and have your data back (of course there are limitations to this on if the backups have all been overwritten or it’s been too long since the change was made). Cloud backups seem to work great when working with documents such as word & excel type files. Cloud backups have a monthly subscription requirements.
So you have either many gigabits of data or you don’t want to have a subscription to a cloud backup. Well, you can backup your data using software on your computer to an external hard drive. This software we use, called Acronis, has worked great for us and many of our customers. You purchase the software from us and an external hard drive and we will set it up to keep a couple of full backups and a few revisions of each before it starts removing the oldest versions. Local backups work really good for people who have lots of data, such as photographers or people who work with lots of large images.