We have seen much written in this column (and in technology news in general) about the types of data backup solutions that are available today and their importance to keeping your business running in the event of hardware failure.
They run the range from the basic CD/DVD backup to Network Attached Storage (NAS) drives and tape libraries. Each variety of backup touts its advantages, and of course the sales pitches all make them seem as if they will magically put you right back to where you were the moment before your worst computing fears were realized. The reality is far from these promises however, and having seen many of those worst computing fear scenarios up close and personal I will take us on a walk through the main recovery options and what you can expect from them should your hard drive fail completely.
All backup solutions run second to a good set of mirrored hard drives also known as a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Discs) one, five or 10. This technology keeps a duplicate copy of your data on two hard drives of the same size in your computer. The advantage to this is that instead of having just one hard drive when, not if, your hard drive fails you will have your data to work off of on the
Online backups have become increasingly popular and efficient as Internet bandwidth speeds and file compression capabilities have increased. Online backup services also include software to set up which files you want to backup and when. This type of backup is limited in its capacity to upload your data to the backup company's servers. At the fastest standard DSL and Cable internet speeds you can upload approximately 86 gigabytes in a 24-hour period. There are many options in this category ranging in price from $5 per month to as much as you want to spend. Online backups are designed to protect your computer's data files not its operating system or programs. The one primary shortfall with using online backups is that if your hard drive fails you will need to reinstall your operating system and all of your programs before you will be able to use any of your backed up data. A rough calculation of reinstalling my critical software and operating system on my home PC put me at 14 hours before I would be able to start downloading an online backup for recovery.
Backing up to CDRW, DVD-RW, Rev drives, and other removable media drives are an inexpensive and easily stored backup option. The primary differences lie in the storage capacity, reusability and durability of the media. With these options you can create what is called a bootable disc. Backup software to set this up comes on Apple Time Machine, Windows XP Pro and Vista Business, and these backup jobs are referred to as system state backups. If you have another operating system such as XP Home you will need to purchase or download software that will allow you to build and schedule a backup job. System state backups are a copy of your operating system, program files, and data on your computer. When your hard drive crashes a system state backup will restore your computer to the point when the backup was taken after you reinstall the operating system. This will save you many hours of having to reinstall all of your programs.
External hard drives and network attached storage devices (NAS) are a flexible and easily editable method for backing up your computer. Five hundred gigabyte and one terabyte hard drives have come down in price tremendously in the past year. NAS devices can be set up in a RAID as mentioned earlier to give you more redundancy. Please bear in mind that if you get a virus or spyware that renders your computer inoperable, your external hard drive will likely be infected as well if it was attached to your computer when it was attacked. For this reason I recommend only connecting your backup drive when you intend to do backups. No sense letting a virus destroy what you need to rebuild your computer with. You will need to set up a backup job similarly to how you would with a removable media drive and the restore process works the same once you reinstall the operating system.
The backup system that lends itself best to off-site backup with large storage capacity is a tape drive. These systems are best suited to server environments and are fairly expensive. I include them as they are a best practice for businesses. They can store up to 800 GB and if you are backing up more than that they have tape changer options that will allow for a backup job to span multiple tapes. They create a point in time backup as do the removable media options, they can be overwritten multiple times, and they are a point in time backup. An advantage to point in time backups is that if you need to go back and retrieve a version of a file that has been edited several times since the original you need you can pull it off of an archived tape. They are also the ideal solution for virus recovery. If a virus destroys your server or computer you can go to your last non-infected tape and rebuild off of that.
No matter which option you choose at least choose one. I have seen more sad faces than I care to remember when I have told people that all of their pictures, music, and the only copy of their daughters wedding video have gone to digital heaven. Backing up your data is like fire insurance for your house. You don't really want to think about having to use it, and you may never. When you need it and don't have it you will be spending a great deal of time and money getting things back to what you started with.
Carlton Nielsen is the co-owner of NYLEX.NET, a local computer network support company, working with customers in six states and two cities in Siberia. He can be reached at cnielsen@nylex.net.
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